Channeling of terawatt laser pulses by use of hollow waveguides.

Subpicosecond laser pulses at power levels in excess of 1 TW were channeled through hollow microcapillary tubes by use of a combination of grazing-incidence dielectric and plasma-wall reflection mechanisms. Maximum input and output intensities were 10(17) and 10(16) W/cm(2) through 50-microm radius by 3-cm-long glass microcapillary tubes with as few as two waveguide modes being excited. 133-microm radius tubes as long as 13 cm resulted in successful channeling with an extinction coefficient of 0.2 cm(-1) and a plasma-wall reflectivity of 80%.