Simulation for generation of 15 fs laser pulses by Raman backscatter in plasmas

Abstract

Pulse compression using the Raman backscatter (RBS) in plasmas was numerically investigated for the strong kinetic regime. It was found that shortening of a seed pulse is more effective when the interaction length is smaller, which is contradictory to the general expectation. In a representative case, compression of up to 14 fs could be obtained from the RBS interaction length less than 0.1 mm. Behavior of the Raman amplification system for such a short interaction distance was not addressed before. Estimation with realistic parameters indicates that the output power can reach tens of terawatts.