Empirical scaling laws for self-focused laser pulses in nitrogen plasmas

2025/06/05 by Lorenzo Martelli, I. A. Andriyash, Martelli, Lorenzo +9
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Space Satellite Systems and Control

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.04827

Abstract

We investigate the interaction between a superintense laser pulse and a nitrogen plasma with densities exceeding 10¹⁹ cm^-3, using particle-in-cell simulations. Such configurations have recently demonstrated the capability to produce highly charged electron beams (i.e., >10 nC) with 1 J-class lasers, a significant step toward high-average-current laser-plasma accelerators. Our study focuses on analyzing the impact of laser self-focusing on laser dynamics, leading to scaling laws that characterize beam diffraction, wakefield amplitude and plasma structures, providing important insights of this interaction regime.

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