2004/06/04 by Sergey Gordienko, S. Gordienko, A. Pukhov +7
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Optics (physics.optics) #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #physics.optics #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0406019
openalex publication_date 2004/06/04 · arxiv created 2004/06/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We demonstrate analytically and numerically that focusing of high harmonics produced by the reflection of a few femtosecond laser pulse from a concave plasma surface opens a new way towards unprecedentally high intensities. The key features allowing for boosting of the focal intensity is the harmonic coherency and the small exponent of the power-law decay of the harmonic spectrum. Using the similarity theory and direct particle-in-cell simulations we find that the intensity at the Coherent Harmonic Focus (CHF) scales as I\tiny CHF ∝ a03 I0, where a0 and I0∝ a02 are the dimensionless relativistic amplitude and the intensity of the incident laser pulse. The scaling suggests that due to the CHF, the Schwinger intensity limit can be achieved using lasers with I0 ≈ 1022 W/cm2. The pulse duration at the focus scales as τ\tiny CHF ∝ 1/a02 and reaches the subattosecond range.