Abstract
Appropriate refractive-index profiles for optical guiding of short, intense pulses arc prepared by using a two-pulse technique made possible through two-pulse operation of a Nd:YAG regenerative-amplifier system (RGA). Two seed pulses are injected into the RGA, with variable delay between 50 ps and 10 ns. The 100-ps output pulses, with maximum energy 200 mJ, are exactly Spatially overlapped at the focus of f/10 lens inside a chamber filled with 5-100 Torr of N2, Ar, or Xe. The first pulse creates a heated column of electrons, which subsequently drives a radially expanding shock structure into the surrounding weakly ionized/neutral gas, the speed of which depends on the ion mass. The resulting electron-density profile is observed to guide the second pulse, injected after an optimum delay that increases with ion mass.
© 1993 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
A. B. Borisov, A. McPherson, K. Boyer, and C. K. Rhodes
ThDD.48 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1993
D. Umstadter, X. Liu, J.S. Coe, C.Y. Chien, E. Esarey, and P. Sprangle
MC4 Short Wavelength Coherent Radiation: Generation and Applications (HFSW) 1991
P. Monot, T. Auguste, P. Gibbon, F. Jakober, G. Mainfray, J. L. Miquel, and M. Louis-Jacquet
WA5 High Resolution Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) 1994