Effect of Expanding Plasma on Propagation of Electromagnetic Pulses by Laser-Plasma Interaction

Experiments were performed using the Prague Asterix Laser System to study the effect of expanding plasma on electromagnetic pulse propagation (EMP) in the interaction chamber in an intensity regime of 1016 W cm−2. Similar to the interaction that occurs between radio waves and the ionosphere, the expansion of laser-produced plasma causes the vacuum chamber to be gradually filled with inhomogeneous plasma that interacts with the emitted EMP. Combining the space-time analysis of a plasma density inside the interaction chamber and the fast Fourier transform filtering of antenna signals, we have resolved the influence of the expanding plasma on space-time characteristics of EMP.