Stabilization and correction of aberrated laser beams via plasma channelling

Abstract

Abstract High-power laser applications, and especially laser wakefield acceleration, continue to draw attention through various research topics, and may bring many industrial applications based on compact accelerators, from ultrafast imaging to cancer therapy. However, one main step towards this is the arch issue of stability. Indeed, the interaction of a complex, aberrated laser beam with plasma involves a lot of physical phenomena and non-linear effects, such as self-focusing and filamentation. Different outcomes can be induced by small laser instabilities (i.e. laser wavefront), therefore harming any practical solution. One promising path to be explored is the use of a plasma channel to possibly guide and correct aberrated beams. Complex and costly experimental facilities are required to investigate such topics. However, one way to quickly and efficiently explore new solutions is numerical simulations, especially Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations if, and only if, one is confidently implementing such aberrated beams which, contrary to a Gaussian beam, do not have analytical solutions. In this research, we propose two new advancements: the correct implementation of aberrated laser beams inside a 3D PIC code, showing a great consistency, under vacuum, compared to the calculations with Fresnel theory); and the correction of their quality via the propagation inside a plasma channel. We demonstrate improvements in the beam pattern, becoming closer to a single plasma mode with less distortions, and thus suggesting a better stability for the targeted application. Through this confident calculation technique for distorted laser beams, we are now expecting to proceed with more accurate PIC simulations, closer to experimental conditions, and obtained results with plasma channels indicate promising future research.