Optically Controlled Solid-Density Transient Plasma Gratings

Abstract

A general approach for optically controlled spatial structuring of overdense plasmas generated at the surface of initially plain solid targets is presented. We demonstrate it experimentally by creating sinusoidal plasma gratings of adjustable spatial periodicity and depth, and study the interaction of these transient structures with an ultraintense laser pulse to establish their usability at relativistically high intensities. We then show how these gratings can be used as a "spatial ruler" to determine the source size of the high-order harmonic beams produced at the surface of an overdense plasma. These results open new directions both for the metrology of laser-plasma interactions and the emerging field of ultrahigh intensity plasmonics.

Generation of Attosecond Light Pulses from Gas and Solid State Media

“…[175] and the driven plasma mirror properties (plasma density gradient) [118]. These parameters together determine the source size on the target plane which for the CWE turns out to be comparable to the laser focal spot size [85].…”

“…This is the main advantage of the solid surface media compared to all other laser-driven XUV sources. The other unique advantage of HOH from solid surfaces is that it provides a metrology tool to investigate ultrafast plasma dynamical processes, which is otherwise inaccessible experimentally [82][83][84][85][86]. Theoretical predictions [83] show that using~5 fs IR laser pulses with intensity on target in the range of I L~1 0 20 W/cm 2 , pulses of duration~200 asec in thẽ 60 eV photon energy range can be generated with conversion efficiency~10 −1 (~10 15 photons/pulse), while the generation of~5 asec pulses in the keV photon energy range can take place with conversion efficiency~10 −4 (~10 11 photons/pulse).…”

“…[67,91]. Due to the experimental obstacles mentioned before, the solid surface harmonics as a robust asec source (that can be utilized for further experiments) is still in the development phase and applicability up to now is mainly dedicated to the studies of the ultrafast dynamics of laser-plasma interaction [82][83][84][85][86]. Nevertheless, recent experiments performed in the non-linear XUV regime [54,92] and recent progress in the laser pulse engineering and solid target technology [5,6,[35][36][37]67] verifies the feasibility of using solid surface harmonics in ultrafast XUV spectroscopy and attosecond science.…”

Generation and Applications of Extreme-Ultraviolet Vortices

“…This has motivated several experimental, theoretical and numerical advances that take advantage of the nonlinear optical properties of plasmas [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. The generation and amplification of vortex beams and its harmonics has been a key component of research related to these recent, but truly exciting, developments.…”

“…The use of transient plasma gratings [58] to manipulate light at ultra-high intensities has attracted considerable experimental attention as it can be used to generate high power vortex laser beams, and their harmonics, at ultra-high intensities. Instead of being formed in an underdense plasma, as in Raman scattering, a transient plasma grating can be formed at the surface of a solid target.…”