Comparative study of CO2 laser-produced tin-droplet plasma with and without pre-pulse laser has been presented. A pre-pulse laser and the CO2 laser was combined and focused to tin-droplet with a diameter of 180 µm. The emitted Sn ions were detected by several Faraday cups to obtain angular distribution of ions in the laser-produced tin-droplet plasma. The influence of pre-pulse laser energy and delay time between pumping laser and pre-pulse laser on the ion characteristics was investigated. It is illustrated that ion average kinetic energy from CO2 laser-produced plasma (LPP) can be reduced when the tin-droplet target has been replaced by the preformed Sn plasma. The obtained optimal delay time with the lowest ion average kinetic energy is about hundreds of nanoseconds. The ion time-of-flight spectra show a twin peak structure in laser-irradiating preformed Sn plasma. And a superimposed Maxwell–Boltzmann (MB) distribution is proposed to describe this twin peak ion time-of-flight spectra. The fitting results quite agree with the raw ion time-of-flight spectra in current experiment. Then, the fitted plasma temperatures and mass-center velocities with various delay times in laser-irradiating preformed plasma are obtained, and the fitted plasma temperatures can be comparable with ion average kinetic energy in double-pulse LPP, which justified the rationality using this superimposed MB distribution.

A one-dimensional (1D) numerical model for studying enhanced terahertz (THz) radiation generation by mixing of ordinary and extraordinary modes of two-color laser pulses propagating in magnetized plasma has been presented. The direction of the static external magnetic field is such that one of the two laser pulses propagates in the extraordinary mode, while the other pulse propagates in the ordinary mode, through homogeneous plasma. A transverse electromagnetic wave with frequency in the THz range is generated due to the presence of the external magnetic field. It is observed that larger amplitude THz radiation can be generated by mixing of the ordinary and extraordinary modes of the two-color laser pulses as compared with the single laser pulse propagating in the extraordinary mode. Further, 2D simulations using the XOOPIC code show that the fields obtained via simulation study are compatible with those obtained from the numerical model.

We report on the experimental observation of Smith–Purcell (SP) radiation generation by charged particle beam from laser–matter interactions. High-power laser pulses were focused onto a thin metal foil target to generate proton beams with energies up to 1.7 MeV via the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) process. The particle beam from the TNSA process was sent close to a periodic structure to generate SP radiation. Sub-μJ terahertz pulses were recorded using a pyroelectric detector. Simultaneous measurement of the ion spectra allowed us to estimate the power of the emitted radiation and compare it with the experimental results. The distance between the grating and the particle beam was varied and its effect on the emitted radiation was studied.

Ponderomotive non-linearities arising by propagation of a linearly polarized laser beam through high-density quantum plasma are studied. The intense laser beam sets the plasma electrons in quiver motion and consequently ponderomotive non-linearity sets in leading to electron density perturbation inside the plasma. The interaction formalism has been built using the quantum hydrodynamic model. Laser beam traversing through high-density quantum plasma acquires an additional focusing tendency due to the perturbation induced by ponderomotive force in the plasma density. The ponderomotive force causes the beam to focus and the quantum effects contribute in focusing. The transverse magnetization of quantum plasma enhances the self-focusing and increase in magnetic field limits the spot size.

A scheme for the improvement of proton beam quality by the optimized dragging field from the interaction of ultraintense laser pulse with a complex double-layer target is proposed and demonstrated by one-dimensional particle-in-cell (Opic1D) simulations. The complex double-layer target consists of an overdense proton thin foil followed by a mixed hydrocarbon (CH) underdense plasma. Because of the existence of carbon ions, the dragging field in the mixed CH underdense plasma becomes stronger and flatter in the location of the proton beam than that in a pure hydrogen (H) underdense plasma. The optimized dragging field can keep trapping and accelerating protons in the mixed CH underdense target to high quality. Consequently, the energy spread of the proton beam in the mixed CH underdense plasma can be greatly reduced down to 2.6% and average energy of protons can reach to 9 GeV with circularly polarized lasers at intensities 2.74 × 1022 W/cm2.