Summary form only given. Plasma channels can be used to guide high intensity laser pulses over distances much longer than the diffraction limit, which is necessary for applications such as laser wakefield accelerators. Previous plasma channels have been formed only in incompletely ionized gases, in which a sufficiently intense guided pulse suffers ionization-induced phase distortion. In the paper we demonstrate formation of a plasma channel in almost fully doubly-ionized helium. The key enabling technique is use of an electrical discharge to pre-ionize the helium, thus lowering the threshold for ionization heating and channel formation by a line focused laser pulse by an order of magnitude. In our experiment, a 100 ps, 120 mJ Nd:YAG laser pulse is focused to a line by an axicon to intensities of /spl sim/10/sup 13/W/cm/sup 2/ into 300-600 torr Helium gas.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Plasma channels in doubly-ionized helium


    Contributors:
    Gaul, E.W. (author) / Le Blanc, S.P. (author) / Langhoff, H. (author) / Matlis, N.H. (author) / Downer, M.C. (author)


    Publication date :

    1999-01-01


    Size :

    172485 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Variations of Protons and Doubly Ionized Helium Ions in the Solar Wind

    Khokhlachev, A. A. / Riazantseva, M. O. / Rakhmanova, L. S. et al. | Springer Verlag | 2021


    Laser heating of ionized helium

    Scherrer, Victor E. | TIBKAT | 1970



    Shock Tube Boundary Layers in Ionized Argon-Helium Mixtures

    NELSON A. MACKEN / ARTHUR L. BESSE AND MORTON A. LEVINE | AIAA | 1972


    ELECTROSTATIC MODES IN PARTIALLY IONIZED PLASMA

    Vranjes, J. / Poedts, S. / European Space Agency | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005