Collinear Thomson scattering diagnostic system for the detection of relativistic waves in low-density plasmas

A Thomson scattering technique is used to study relativistic plasma waves at plasma densities as low as 2×1015 cm−3. A spatial-spectral filter is utilized to simultaneously attenuate the probe light ∼109 times and collect the weak scattered light which is shifted 3–24 Å from the probe wavelength. The plasma waves, excited by a two-wavelength CO2 laser pulse with intensities up to 1015 W/cm2, are probed by a 532 nm laser pulse in a collinear geometry. Both the red- and blueshifted sidebands of Thomson scattered light are simultaneously resolved in time and frequency.