Coherently enhanced microwave pulses from midinfrared-driven laser plasmas. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Ultrafast ionization of a gas medium driven by ultrashort midinfrared laser pulses provides a source of bright ultrabroadband radiation whose spectrum spans across the entire microwave band, reaching for the sub-gigahertz range. We combine multiple, mutually complementary detection techniques to provide an accurate polarization-resolved characterization of this broadband output as a function of the gas pressure. At low gas pressures, the lowest-frequency part of this output is found to exhibit a drastic enhancement as this field builds up its coherence, developing a well-resolved emission cone, dominated by a radial radiation energy flux. This behavior of the intensity, coherence, and polarization of the microwave output is shown to be consistent with Cherenkov-type radiation by ponderomotively driven plasma currents.

published proceedings

  • Opt Lett

author list (cited authors)

  • Mitrofanov, A. V., Sidorov-Biryukov, D. A., Nazarov, M. M., Voronin, A. A., Rozhko, M. V., Fedotov, A. B., & Zheltikov, A. M.

citation count

  • 11

complete list of authors

  • Mitrofanov, AV||Sidorov-Biryukov, DA||Nazarov, MM||Voronin, AA||Rozhko, MV||Fedotov, AB||Zheltikov, AM

publication date

  • March 2021