Intense Mid-Infrared Laser Pulse Generated via Flying-Mirror Red-Shifting in Near-Critical-Density Plasmas

Relativistic femtosecond mid-infrared pulses can be generated efficiently by laser interaction with near-criticaldensity plasmas.It is found theoretically and numerically that the radiation pressure of a circularly polarized laser pulse first compresses the plasma electrons to form a dense flying mirror with a relativistic high speed.The pulse reflected by the mirror is red-shifted to the mid-infrared range.Full three-dimensional simulations demonstrate that the central wavelength of the mid-infrared pulse is tunable from 3µm to 14µm,and the laser energy conversion efficiency can reach as high as 13%.With a 0.5–10 PW incident laser pulse,the generated mid-infrared pulse reaches a peak power of 10–180 TW,which is interesting for various applications in ultrafast and high-field sciences.