Straight and linearly tapered capillaries produced by femtosecond laser micromachining

Mark Wiggins, M. P. Reijnders, Salima Saleh Abu-Azoum, Kerri Hart, Gregory Vieux, Gregor H. Welsh, Riju Issac, Xue Yang, David Jones, Dino Jaroszynski

Research output: Contribution to journalSpecial issuepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Gas-filled capillary discharge waveguides are a commonly employed medium in laser–plasma interaction applications, such as the laser wakefield accelerator, because they can simultaneously guide high-power laser pulses while acting as the medium for acceleration. In this paper, the production of both straight and linearly tapered capillaries using a femtosecond laser micromachining technique is presented. A tapered capillary is shown to possess a smooth variation in diameter (from 305 μm to 183 μm) along its entire 40 mm length, which would lead to a longitudinal plasma density gradient, thereby dramatically improving the laser–plasma interaction efficiency in applications. Efficient guiding with up to 82% energy transmission of the fundamental Gaussian mode of a low intensity, 50 fs duration laser pulse is shown for both types of capillary waveguide.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)355-361
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Plasma Physics
Volume78
Issue numberspecial issue 4
Early online date2 Feb 2012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords

  • straight
  • linearly tapered
  • capilliaries
  • femtosecond laser
  • micromachining

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Straight and linearly tapered capillaries produced by femtosecond laser micromachining'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this