Optical guiding of intense Hermite–Gaussian laser beam in preformed plasma channel and second harmonic generation

Abstract

This work presents the scheme of optical channeling of the intense Hermite Gaussian laser beam and second-harmonic generation in plasma having the preformed plasma channel, where relativistic nonlinearity is operative. Excitation of the electron plasma wave at the incident beam frequency leads its coupling with the latter produces the second harmonics of the beam. For the formulation of differential equations for the beam waists of the Hermite Gaussian laser beam propagating through the channel, the method of moments has been used. The solutions of the coupled differential equations are found using Runge Kutta fourth-order numerical method. Perturbation theory has been applied to find the equation governing the excitation of electron plasma wave and hence the source term for the second-harmonic yield. It has been observed that the preformed plasma channel helps to optically guide the laser beam and enhances the efficiency of second-harmonic generation of various modes of the Hermite Gaussian laser beam in plasma.