Highly ionized Ar plasma waveguides generated by a fast capillary discharge

Abstract

Highly ionized Ar plasma channels were created by a fast capillary discharge and used to guide laser pulses with peak intensities up to 2.2 × 1017 W/cm2 over a 5.5-cm distance. These plasmas are of interest for the generation of efficient soft X-ray lasers by longitudinal laser excitation. The guides were characterized using plasma interferometry, modeling, and near field imaging.