Self-guiding of ultrashort, relativistically intense laser pulses through underdense plasmas in the blowout regime

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 May 1;102(17):175003. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.175003. Epub 2009 Apr 30.

Abstract

The self-guiding of relativistically intense but ultrashort laser pulses has been experimentally investigated as a function of laser power, plasma density, and plasma length in the blowout regime. The extent of self-guiding, observed by imaging the plasma exit, is shown to be limited by nonlinear pump depletion with observed self-guiding of over tens of Rayleigh lengths. Spectrally resolved images of the plasma exit show evidence consistent with self-guiding in the plasma wake. Minimal losses of the self-guided pulse resulted when the initial spot size was matched to the blowout radius.