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Polychromatic x-ray production in helium from a femtosecond high-intensity laser system

K. Ta Phuoc, A. Rousse, L. Notebaert, M. Pittman, J. P. Rousseau, V. Malka, S. Fritzler, S. Sebban, P. Balcou, and D. Hulin
Laboratoire dOptique Appliquee, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Techniques Avancees, Centre National de la ` Recherche Scientique, Ecole Polytechnique, Chemin de la Huniere, 91761 Palaiseau, France

J. R. Marques and P. G. David

Laboratoire pour lUtilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR7605, Centre National de la Recherche Scientique, Ecole Polytechnique, Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique, Universite Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France Received April 17, 2002; revised manuscript received October 18, 2002 Polychromatic x-ray radiation has been produced during the relativistic interaction of a 50-TW femtosecond laser with a helium gas jet. We have characterized the spectrum and the angular distribution of the x-ray emission as well as its dependency on the laser polarization and on the plasma electronic density. We have observed a broad continuous spectrum peaking at 0.15 keV with a signicant tail up to 2 keV. The radiation was fairly collimated. 2003 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 300.6560, 350.5400, 350.5616, 320.7090, 340.7480.

The x-ray radiation ( less than a few kiloelectron volts) produced during the interaction of a femtosecond laser with matter has been widely studied at moderate laser intensities below the relativistic threshold.1 The generation of high-order harmonics from atomic ensembles,2 optical eld ionization x-ray lasers,3,4 K radiation,5,6 and thermal x rays7 from strongly ionized plasma have well been characterized. At much higher laser intensities, close to 1020 W/cm2 , no x-ray studies have been undertaken in gaseous targets. Many radiative processes are expected during the relativistic interaction between an ultrafast laser and matter. Electrons oscillating inside the laser eld, trapped in the plasma wave by self-modulated laser wakeeld (SMLWF) acceleration or accelerated directly by the ponderomotive force, can participate in the overall x-ray emission through collisional process. The Larmor radiation directly emitted by the electrons oscillating in the laser eld can produce x-rays whose spatial and spectral behaviors are fully governed by the trajectory811 of the electrons and the laser strength parameter a 0 . Here we report the experimental characterization of the x-ray emission produced during the interaction of a 50-TW femtosecond laser with a supersonic helium gas jet. The experiment was conducted at the Laboratoire dOptique Appliquee, where we used the 30-fs and 1-J (33TW) Ti:sapphire laser system. The laser beam, 55 mm in diameter, was focused with an f/5.45 off-axis parabolic mirror onto the front edge of a supersonic gas jet of helium or argon. The diameter of the focal spot was 6 m full width at half-maximum (FWHM) in intensity and contained 60% of the laser energy. The maximum incident laser intensity (I) was 7 1019 W/cm2 , corresponding to a laser strength parameter a 0 5.6 for the linear polarization, where a0 eE/m 0 0 c 8.5 10 10
0740-3224/2003/010221-03$15.00

1/2 . E is the amplitude of the laser eld, e is m(I W/cm2 ) the electron charge, m 0 is the electron mass, 0 is the laser frequency, and is the laser wavelength. At such laser intensities the helium gas was fully ionized early in the pedestal of the laser pulse. The x-ray radiation was collected with grazing-incidence metallic mirrors (nickel or gold) over a solid angle of 1.5 10 2 sr and was focused onto a back-illuminated CCD camera. Filters were positioned between the plasma and the detector to block the laser infrared light. A static magnetic eld was inserted between the plasma and the x-ray spectrometer to deect the charged particles accelerated in the forward direction out of the detector. We selected spectral bands of the incoming polychromatic x rays by combining the spectral absorption of the lters and the spectral reectivity of the mirrors. Our x-ray spectrometer was sensitive to x rays in a bandwidth from 20 eV to 2 keV. The angular dependence of the x-ray emission was obtained by rotation of the whole spectrometer around the laser focal spot. A second arm of the laser system was used to optically probe, at each x-ray acquisition, the propagation of the beam inside the cylindrical gas jet (3 mm in diameter). At such high laser intensities, the interaction was characterized and controlled through the analysis of forward Raman scattered light, time-resolved shadowgraphy, and side Thomson scattering. An electron spectrometer was also positioned in the forward direction and was set to cover the energetic range from 1 to 60 MeV.12 The spectral x-ray distribution obtained on axis (the direction of the laser propagation) is presented in Fig. 1. The spectral bandwidths were selected with aluminum, zirconium, titanium, and beryllium lters, which respectively provide spectral ranges centered on 45, 150, 350, and 1500 eV. We can see that the output spectrum peaks on the bandwidth centered at 0.15 keV with a signicant

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Fig. 1. Energy spectrum of the x-ray emission obtained at full laser energy (on the front edge of the gas jet). The polarization of the incident laser is linear. The bars correspond to the spectral bandwidth associated with each measurement of the spectrum. The electron density is 5 1019 cm 3 .

tail up to 2 keV. This spectral distribution was recorded where the produced x-ray intensity was the highest. The x-ray intensity actually shows a strong dependency on the position of the focal spot relative to the front edge of the gas jet (z 0 , not shown). The x-ray signal up to 350 eV has two maximums separated by a minimum when the laser is focused right onto the front edge of the nozzle. The two maximums move closer to z 0 as the x-ray energy becomes higher; the x-ray signal peaks on z 0 for the spectral bandwidth centered at 1.5 keV, where the laser intensity is the highest. The angular distribution for the bandwidth centered at 350 eV and at the maximum x-ray intensity is displayed in Fig. 2 for linear horizontally, vertically, or circularly polarized light. The radiation peaks in the forward direction and decreases smoothly down to 40. The divergence is found to be independent of the polarization; however, we can see in Fig. 2 that the x-ray intensity is signicantly higher in circular polarization. We can see in Fig. 2 a signicant increase of the signal in the case of circularly polarized light for the spectral band centered at 350 eV. A similar result has been also observed at all the x-ray wavelengths. This feature is in complete contrast to the process of high-order harmonics generation from atomic ensembles that could occur in the wings of the focal spot where the laser intensity is sufciently weak. In that case the signal would be expected to completely vanish for circular polarization.2 Bremsstrahlung radiation can be produced following the inelastic collision of the electrons with the ions during the interaction. The spectral distribution is predicted to be at, which is clearly not the case in the experiment. Furthermore, the on-axis x-ray signal was also found to increase linearly with electronic density (N e ) as shown in Fig. 3. This linear increase of the x-ray emission cannot account for bremsstrahlung radiation. In that case the signal would increase as the square of the electronic density. However, angular distributions obtained for the largest angles of observation show a signal that does not depend on the angle of observation. The inset of Fig. 3

shows that the distribution becomes at from 35 to 55 (the largest angle of observation attainable in the experiment), which may be consistent with bremsstrahlung radiation. As mentioned previously, a different behavior of the x-ray signal is then expected when the electronic density is increased. Figure 3 shows that the x-ray yield for large angles of observation has a component increasing as N e 2 . In addition, experiments done in argon at the same electronic density as in helium did not change the x-ray ux measured on axis, whereas bremsstrahlung emission would have scaled as the square of the atomic number. For all the reasons listed above, we can safely rule out bremsstrahlung radiation as the dominant radiative process in our experiments on axis. Atomic lines from the high-temperature plasma generated in the interaction region could also participate to the x-ray emission. However, such processes must be taken into account only for sufciently high-Z elements. In case of helium, the electron binding energy is limited to 25 eV, which is less energetic than the observed radiation spectrum. Furthermore, the observed spatial distribution is collimated in the forward direction, completely excluding all the isotropic radiative processes such as the emission from this thermal plasma.

Fig. 2. Spatial distribution of the x-ray emission at a 0 0.5 (front edge of the gas jet) in the spectral bandwidth centered at 0.35 keV. Filled diamond, horizontal linear polarization; open diamond, vertical linear polarization; circle, circular polarization.

Fig. 3. Intensity of the x-ray emission as a function of the plasma electronic density for angles of observation of 0 (dot) and 40 (triangle). The inset shows the spatial distribution of the x-ray intensity obtained at an electronic density of 5 1018 3 cm . The ts are linear for 0 and second-order polynomial for 40.

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The previous observations rule out the collisional processes and the generation of high harmonics from the atomic ensemble, as well as the radiation from atomic lines. Additional analysis are necessary to understand what the physical process is at the origin of the observed x-ray radiation. One of them, the Larmor radiation, is expected to produce a large ux of radiation under these relativistic interaction conditions11,13 and could be one credible candidate.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the European Community under contracts TMR ERB-FMGE-CT95-0019 and ERBFMRX-CT96-0080. A. Rousses e-mail address is rousse@enstay.ensta.fr.

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