Optical properties of relativistic plasma mirrors
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2014 papers
Abstract
The advent of ultrahigh-power femtosecond lasers creates a need for an entirely new class of optical components based on plasmas. The most promising of these are known as plasma mirrors, formed when an intense femtosecond laser ionizes a solid surface. These mirrors specularly reflect the main part of a laser pulse and can be used as active optical elements to manipulate its temporal and spatial properties. Unfortunately, the considerable pressures exerted by the laser can deform the mirror surface, unfavourably affecting the reflected beam and complicating, or even preventing, the use of plasma mirrors at ultrahigh intensities. Here we derive a simple analytical model of the basic physics involved in laser-induced deformation of a plasma mirror. We validate this model numerically and experimentally, and use it to show how such deformation might be mitigated by appropriate control of the laser phase.
Related Papers
- → Femtosecond Laser Micro/Nano-manufacturing: Theories, Measurements, Methods, and Applications(2020)102 cited
- → Femtosecond time-resolved exciton dynamics in CdSe(1984)22 cited
- → Reactions on the Femtosecond Time Scale(2003)
- → How to perform two color femtosecond experiments with two independently tunable, partially synchronized lasers with 5-10 ps timing jitters(2003)
- Femtosecond Spectral Holography and Applications of Femtosecond Pulse Shaping(2005)