Engineering topics

Malkin, V. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Malkin, V. M..

4 records

DOE OSTI2023

Six-photon resonant scattering of collinear laser pulses in plasma

To achieve the highest possible laser intensities with the least laser energy, shorter-wavelengths lasers are advantaged if they can be focused to spots of a few laser wavelengths and durations of several laser periods. However, the top laser pulse energies available nowadays are megajoules at near-optical wavelengths and millijoules at shorter wavelengths. Thus, to produce the highest laser intensities, what is required is an efficient spectral transfer of the huge near-optical energies to shorter wavelengths. It is proposed here that the desired spectral transfer could occur via resonant photon interactions associated with nonlinearity of mildly relativistic motions of plasma electrons in intense laser fields, specifically via the six-photon resonant scattering of collinear laser pulses in plasma. As a result, the six-photon interaction can, in fact, be the dominant resonant photon interaction to achieve collinear frequency up-conversion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Super-resonant four-photon collinear laser frequency multiplication in plasma

Resonant four-photon scattering could nearly double frequencies of intense laser pulses in plasma. However, transverse slippage between pulses presents a technological challenge, while collinear four-photon scattering is forbidden for classical light dispersion in plasma. Nonlinear renormalization of intense laser pulses can enable collinear four-photon resonance. However, such a very intensity-sensitive resonance is difficult to maintain for evolving pulses. Remarkably, there is a lower-dimensionality submanifold of the resonant four-photon manifold where the evolving pulses stay in resonance. Furthermore this could enable an all-optical frequency doubling of mildly relativistic-intense laser pulses in collinear geometry, advantageously free of the transverse slippage challenges.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Resonant four-photon scattering of collinear laser pulses in plasma

Exact four-photon resonance of collinear planar laser pulses is known to be prohibited by the classical dispersion law of electromagnetic waves in plasma. We show here that the renormalization produced by an arbitrarily small relativistic electron nonlinearity removes this prohibition. The laser frequency shifts in collinear resonant four-photon scattering increase with laser intensities. For laser pulses of frequencies much greater than the electron plasma frequency, the shifts can also be much greater than the plasma frequency and even nearly double the input laser frequency at still small relativistic electron nonlinearities. Furthermore, this may enable broad range tunable lasers of very high frequencies and powers. Since the four-photon scattering does not rely on the Langmuir wave, which is very sensitive to plasma homogeneity, such lasers would also be able to operate at much larger plasma inhomogeneities than lasers based on stimulated Raman scattering in plasma.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Towards megajoule x-ray lasers via relativistic four-photon cascade in plasma

Here, a theoretically highly efficient mechanism, operating at high laser intensities and powers, is identified for spectral transferring huge laser energies to shorter ultraviolet and x-ray wavelengths. With megajoule laser energies currently available at near-optical wavelengths, this transfer would, in theory, enable megajoule x-ray lasers, a huge advance over the millijoules x-ray pulses produced now. In fact, enabling even kilojoule x-ray lasers would still be a fantastic advance, and a more likely achievable one, considering practical experimental inefficiencies.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗