Online plasma diagnostics of a laser-produced plasma

In this study, we report a laser interferometry experiment for the online-diagnosing of a laser-produced plasma. The laser pulses generating the plasma are ultra-fast (30 femtoseconds), ultra-intense (tens of Terawatt) and are focused on a helium gas jet to generate relativistic electron beams via the laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) mechanism. A probe laser beam (lambda = 800 nm) which is split-off the main beam is used to cross the plasma at the time of arrival of the main pulse, allowing online plasma density diagnostics. The interferometer setup is based on the NoMarski method in which we used a Fresnel bi-prism where the probe beam interferes with itself after crossing the plasma medium. A high-dynamic range CCD camera is used to record the interference patterns. Based upon the Abel inversion technique, we obtained a 3D density distribution of the plasma density.