Reshaping of intense laser pulse with a capillary

The reshaping of intense laser pulse by vacuum capillary is studied by particle-in-cell simulation. It is shown that as an intense laser pulse propagates from free space into a capillary, its profile is reshaped due to laser-plasma interaction near the entrance of capillary. As a result, the free-space mode is self-consistently converted into a capillary mode. Only the relatively low-intensity periphery of the reshaped pulse interacts with the capillary-wall plasma, so that the high-intensity center of the pulse can propagate in the narrow vacuum channel over a distance much larger than the Rayleigh length. The mechanism is then applied to reshape a radially imperfect laser pulse having two wings around the center spot. Most of the output light energy is concentrated in the center spot, and the wings are almost completely removed. That is, the quality of the laser pulse can be greatly improved by a capillary. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3224903]