Concentration and propagation of super-intense laser-generated THz fields on a microwire target

By | 15.09.2024

A. S. Kuratov, A. V. Brantov, V. Yu. Bychenkov

  • Federal Research Center The Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod
  • All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics named after N L Dukhov, Moscow
  • P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Abstract: The interaction of a high-power short laser pulse from the XCELS facility with solid-state metal targets of various designs and sizes makes it possible to obtain the most powerful and highest-energy terahertz (THz) pulses. Their further applications and uses are associated with the need for focusing and transportation, which requires the development of appropriate control elements for high-power THz pulses. For this purpose, it is of interest to use targets that, on the one hand, are an element of the radiation source, and, on the other hand, are capable of collimating and transporting the THz radiation energy. In this way, a target in the form of a thin metal wire looks promising. The generation of a THz pulse during the interaction of XCELS laser pulses with a cylindrical metal target (microwire) is simulated numerically. It is shown that THz radiation is generated in a unique form, as a unipolar pulse, and a microwire target makes it possible to concentrate a significant part of the radiation near its surface and transport it, also in the form of a unipolar near-surface pulse, at a speed of light along the wire over long distances with low attenuation.
Keywords: high-power terahertz near-surface pulses, terahertz radiation transport, microwire laser targets.
Received: 30.11.2022
Accepted: 30.11.2022