Plasma mirror effect with a short-pulse KrF laser

Abstract

Plasma mirror effect is demonstrated for short-pulse KrF lasers. It is shown that the reflectivity of the plasma starts to increase at the plasma threshold of 1012W/cm2 and it saturates at 10 14W/cm2. The maximum reflectivity was ∼33% for 45° angle of incidence, and ∼50% was reached for 12.4°. This strong reflection allows even its direct application for short-pulse 248 nm systems whereas using it before the last amplifier may even clean the pulse from spatial inhomogeneities. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.