Optical guiding in meter-scale plasma waveguides

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel method for creating meter-scale, low-density plasma waveguides using optical field ionization with Bessel beams, enabling potential electron acceleration to tens of GeV in a single stage.

Contribution

A new highly tunable technique for generating long, low-density plasma waveguides using two time-separated Bessel beam pulses is demonstrated.

Findings

Guiding of intense laser pulses over hundreds of Rayleigh lengths achieved.

Plasma densities as low as 5x10^16 cm^-3 demonstrated.

Waveguides suitable for high-energy electron acceleration.

Abstract

We demonstrate a new highly tunable technique for generating meter-scale low density plasma waveguides. Such guides can enable electron acceleration to tens of GeV in a single stage. Plasma waveguides are imprinted in hydrogen gas by optical field ionization induced by two time-separated Bessel beam pulses: The first pulse, a J_0 beam, generates the core of the waveguide, while the delayed second pulse, here a J_8 or J_16 beam, generates the waveguide cladding. We demonstrate guiding of intense laser pulses over hundreds of Rayleigh lengths with on axis plasma densities as low as N_e0=5x10^16 cm^-3.