Generation of Terawatt Lasers using Raman Backscattering in Plasmas

Summary form only given. The novel scheme of using Raman backscatter in plasmas for ultraintense, ultrashort pulse generation was proposed and has been intensively studied. Recently a fast envelope-based kinetic simulation code, the averaged-PIC (aPIC) was developed to simulate systematically the Raman backscatter in plasmas. In the last upgrade of the aPIC, two dimensional axis symmetric coordinate system is employed. Therefore, it is possible to simulate semi-three-dimensional, azimuthal symmetric laser propagation, which cannot be done by full PIC codes. From a series of aPIC simulations, several parameters for terawatt laser pulse generation are suggested. For various plasma and laser conditions, the kinetic properties of the amplified pulse are also discussed based on the envelope-kinetic model of the plasma wave.