CHANNELING OF TERAWATT LASER-PULSES BY USE OF HOLLOW WAVE-GUIDES

Subpicosecond laser pulses at power levels in excess of 1 TW were chan neled through hollow microcapillary tubes by use of a combination of g razing-incidence dielectric and plasma-wall reflection mechanisms. Max imum input and output intensities were 10(17),and 10(16) W/cm(2) throu gh 50-mu m radius by S-cm-long glass microcapillary tubes with as few as two waveguide modes being excited. 133-mu m radius tubes as long as 13 cm resulted in successful channeling with an extinction coefficien t of 0.2 cm(-1) and a plasma-wall reflectivity of 80%.