Experimental Evidence of Photon Acceleration of Ultrashort Laser Pulses in relativistic Ionization Fronts

J. Dias (1) , C. Stenz (2) , N. C. Lopes (1) , X. Badiche (3) , F. Blasco (2) , Armindo dos Santos (3) , L. Oliveira E Silva (1) , André Mysyrowicz (3) , André Antonetti (3) , J.T. Mendonça (1)

1 GoLP - Centro de Fisica de Plasmas
2 GREMI - Groupe de recherches sur l'énergétique des milieux ionisés
3 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée

The frequency up-shifts of ultrashort laser pulses (65 fs) propagating in opposite directions (20° and 160°) with respect to a relativistic ionization front (interface gas plasma) are measured for the first time. Up-shifts of the order of 25 nm are observed. A very good agreement is found with a two-dimensional ray-tracing theory.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

J. Dias, C. Stenz, N. C. Lopes, X. Badiche, F. Blasco, et al.. Experimental Evidence of Photon Acceleration of Ultrashort Laser Pulses in relativistic Ionization Fronts. Physical Review Letters, 1997, 78 (25), pp.4773-4776. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.4773⟩. ⟨hal-00465608⟩