Experimental study of filamentation in laser-plasma interactions.

摘要

The filamentation instability can lead to regions of increased laser intensity when a spatially nonuniform laser beam interacts with a plasma. An experimental technique will be described which identifies the density perturbation produced by filaments. The growth of filaments has been investigated and, when the laser intensity is large enough, the transverse density profile of the filament can be measured. Evidence of filament growth influenced by plasma flow and density gradients is presented. 19 refs., 4 figs.