Amplification and generation of ultra-intense twisted laser pulses via stimulated Raman scattering

作者：Vieira J^*; Trines R M G M; Alves E P; Fonseca R A; Mendonca J T; Bingham R; Norreys P; Silva L O

来源：Nature Communications, 2016, 7(1): 10371.

DOI：10.1038/ncomms10371

Twisted Laguerre-Gaussian lasers, with orbital angular momentum and characterized by doughnut-shaped intensity profiles, provide a transformative set of tools and research directions in a growing range of fields and applications, from super-resolution microcopy and ultra-fast optical communications to quantum computing and astrophysics. The impact of twisted light is widening as recent numerical calculations provided solutions to long-standing challenges in plasma-based acceleration by allowing for high-gradient positron acceleration. The production of ultra-high-intensity twisted laser pulses could then also have a broad influence on relativistic laser-matter interactions. Here we show theoretically and with ab initio three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that stimulated Raman backscattering can generate and amplify twisted lasers to petawatt intensities in plasmas. This work may open new research directions in nonlinear optics and high-energy-density science, compact plasma- based accelerators and light sources.

• 出版日期2016-1