Observation of Laser-Pulse Shortening in Nonlinear Plasma Waves

Jérôme Faure (1) , Yannick Glinec (1) , J.J. Santos (1) , F. Ewald (1) , Jean-Philippe Rousseau (1) , S. Kiselev (2) , A. Pukhov (2) , T. Hosokai (3) , Victor Malka (1)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 Insitut fur Theoretische Physik I
3 Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory

We have measured the temporal shortening of an ultraintense laser pulse interacting with an underdense plasma. When interacting with strongly nonlinear plasma waves, the laser pulse is shortened from 38±2  fs to the 10–14 fs level, with a 20% energy efficiency. The laser ponderomotive force excites a wakefield, which, along with relativistic self-phase modulation, broadens the laser spectrum and subsequently compresses the pulse. This mechanism is confirmed by 3D particle in cell simulations.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Jérôme Faure, Yannick Glinec, J.J. Santos, F. Ewald, Jean-Philippe Rousseau, et al.. Observation of Laser-Pulse Shortening in Nonlinear Plasma Waves. Physical Review Letters, 2005, 95 (20), pp.205003. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.205003⟩. ⟨hal-00507934⟩