Experimental study of laser plasma instabilities with broadband laser pulses at the GSI PHELIX laser facility

Abstract

We present first experimental data obtained at the recently commissioned experimental platform to compare laser plasma instabilities (LPIs) driven by monochromatic and broad spectral bandwidth (≈ 0.5 %) laser pulses with a wavelength of around 527nm. The evaluation of LPIs at 1015Wcm−2 is shown by utilizing a full aperture backscatter diagnostic and side scatter diagnostics. For a broad bandwidth, our study indicates a suppression of stimulated Brillouin back- and side scattering as well as of the two plasmon decay instability, but an increase of stimulated Raman side scattering. An increase in both temperature and numbers of hot electrons is also identified by direct and indirect measurements.