Design Changes to a Laser-Plasma Simulation Code to Permit Twisted Light Studies

• Author / Creator

  Armstrong, Blaine

• Schemes to implement laser bandwidth wide enough to mitigate laser-plasma instabilities will be both intrusive and expensive. As an alternate approach, work is presented
  that investigates the mitigating effects of spatial, rather than temporal, laser beam
  conditioning on cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) [I.V. Igumenshchev et al., Phys.
  Plasmas 19, 056314 (2012)]. Such conditioning might be generated by phase plates
  alone and could therefore be implemented more easily. We have quantified the energy exchange occurring between crossing laser beams that possess orbital angular
  momentum (OAM) as the amount of OAM exchange between the beams is varied [cf.
  e.g., M. Padgett et al., Physics Today 57, 35 (2004)]. This work enables studies to
  be performed in 3-D using the non-paraxial wave-based LPSE simulation code [J.F.
  Myatt et al., J. Comp. Phys 399, 108916 (2019)]. It required significant modifications to the code to allow for the beams with OAM. The modifications required
  changes to the boundary conditions and the total field scattered field (TF-SF) to be
  implemented successfully

• Subjects / Keywords

  • laser-plasma
  • twisted light
  • fusion
  • cross beam energy transfer

• Graduation date

  Spring 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-0j2g-j509

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.