The preplasma origin of the plasma-mirror reflectivity response
Abstract
Plasma mirrors (PM) enhance the temporal contrast of high-power lasers, but declining reflectivity at subrelativistic intensities limits their energy throughput. Here we show that prepulse-generated preplasma drives this decline in p polarization primarily through absorption. Particle-in-cell simulations using a measured prepulse profile reproduce the reflectivity decrease, with near- and far-field energy accounting showing a weak contribution from scattering. Optical-cycle-resolved electron tracking reveals successive electron bunches extracted from the plasma surface, supporting a vacuum-heating interpretation. Under the simulated conditions, s-polarized absorption remains weak and no comparable decline occurs. Applying the model to two representative double-plasma-mirror (DPM) systems, BELLA and CoReLS, it captures both the p-polarized and s-polarized reflectivity responses across the operating range. Yet, the model still misses the high-fluence s-polarized reflectivity rollover, and further investigation of the scattering channel might be needed. These findings connect prepulse history to polarization-dependent energy loss, informing the choice of plasma-mirror operating conditions.
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026preplasma,
title = {{The preplasma origin of the plasma-mirror reflectivity response}},
author = {Zhongwei Wang and Douglass Schumacher},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.04355},
eprint = {2611.04355},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.04355},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The preplasma origin of the plasma-mirror reflectivity response
AU - Zhongwei Wang
AU - Douglass Schumacher
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.04355
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.04355
AB - Plasma mirrors (PM) enhance the temporal contrast of high-power lasers, but declining reflectivity at subrelativistic intensities limits their energy throughput. Here we show that prepulse-generated preplasma drives this decline in p polarization primarily through absorption. Particle-in-cell simulations using a measured prepulse profile reproduce the reflectivity decrease, with near- and far-field energy accounting showing a weak contribution from scattering. Optical-cycle-resolved electron tracking reveals successive electron bunches extracted from the plasma surface, supporting a vacuum-heating interpretation. Under the simulated conditions, s-polarized absorption remains weak and no comparable decline occurs. Applying the model to two representative double-plasma-mirror (DPM) systems, BELLA and CoReLS, it captures both the p-polarized and s-polarized reflectivity responses across the operating range. Yet, the model still misses the high-fluence s-polarized reflectivity rollover, and further investigation of the scattering channel might be needed. These findings connect prepulse history to polarization-dependent energy loss, informing the choice of plasma-mirror operating conditions.
ER -