Guided propagation of extremely intense lasers in plasma via ion motion

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method for guiding extremely intense lasers in plasma by leveraging ion motion, which is essential for future high-power laser experiments involving nonlinear quantum electrodynamics effects.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical framework showing how ion response can enable laser guidance at ultra-high intensities, verified through 3D particle-in-cell simulations.

Findings

Ion response can effectively guide ultra-intense lasers.

Conditions for ion density and laser power are established.

Simulation results confirm the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

The upcoming $10-100$ petawatt laser facilities may deliver laser pulses with unprecedented intensity of $10^{22}-10^{25}\rm~W cm^{-2}$, which can trigger various nonlinear quantum electrodynamic processes in plasma. For effective laser plasma interactions at such high intensity levels, guided laser propagation is critical. However, this becomes impossible via usual plasma electron response to laser fields due to electron cavitation by the laser ponderomotive force. Here, we find that ion response to the laser fields may effectively guide laser propagation at such high intensity levels. The corresponding conditions of the required ion density distribution and laser power are presented and verified by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Our theory shall serve as a guide for future experimental design involving ultrahigh intensity lasers.