Optical Guiding by Plasma Waves in the Plasma Beat Wave Accelerator

Book excerpt: As the resonantly driven plasma wave grows to sufficiently large amplitudes, it strongly affects the diffractive properties of the radiation beams in the plasma beat wave accelerator (PBWA). In particular, a large amplitude plasma wave (with phase velocity approximately the speed of light) will break up an initially uniform radiation beam into periodic beamlet segments, of length less than or equal to half a plasma wavelength, which remain optically guided as they propagate. In the PBWA, for an optimal choice of the mismatch between the radiation beat frequency and the ambient plasma frequency, the resonantly driven plasma wave may lead to enhance focusing of the radiation beams. Keywords: Plasma beat wave accelerator; Optical guiding; Laser plasma interaction. (JHD).