• Matter and Radiation at Extremes
  • Vol. 7, Issue 5, 054401 (2022)
E. F. J. Bacon1, M. King1、2, R. Wilson1, T. P. Frazer1、2, R. J. Gray1, and P. McKenna1、2、a)
Author Affiliations
  • 1SUPA Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom
  • 2The Cockcroft Institute, Sci-Tech Daresbury, Warrington WA4 4AD, United Kingdom
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    DOI: 10.1063/5.0097585 Cite this Article
    E. F. J. Bacon, M. King, R. Wilson, T. P. Frazer, R. J. Gray, P. McKenna. High order modes of intense second harmonic light produced from a plasma aperture[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2022, 7(5): 054401 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Because of their ability to sustain extremely high-amplitude electromagnetic fields and transient density and field profiles, plasma optical components are being developed to amplify, compress, and condition high-power laser pulses. We recently demonstrated the potential to use a relativistic plasma aperture—produced during the interaction of a high-power laser pulse with an ultrathin foil target—to tailor the spatiotemporal properties of the intense fundamental and second-harmonic light generated [Duff et al., Sci. Rep. 10, 105 (2020)]. Herein, we explore numerically the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a preformed aperture target to generate second-harmonic laser light with higher-order spatial modes. The maximum generation efficiency is found for an aperture diameter close to the full width at half maximum of the laser focus and for a micrometer-scale target thickness. The spatial mode generated is shown to depend strongly on the polarization of the drive laser pulse, which enables changing between a linearly polarized TEM01 mode and a circularly polarized Laguerre–Gaussian LG01 mode. This demonstrates the use of a plasma aperture to generate intense higher-frequency light with selectable spatial mode structure.
    EX(Y)=ddYe2ln(2)YϕL2.

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    Kin(d)=d/2d/2e2ln(2)YϕL2dY.

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    AbsL(l)=αleβl.

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    η2ωL|EX(d/2)|AbsL(l)Kin(d).

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    Kin(d)=ππ0d/2e2ln(2)rϕL2rdrdϕ,

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    E. F. J. Bacon, M. King, R. Wilson, T. P. Frazer, R. J. Gray, P. McKenna. High order modes of intense second harmonic light produced from a plasma aperture[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2022, 7(5): 054401
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