Questions about laser settings

[chengzi0o0]

Hi everyone!

I’m new to laser-plasma science and using WarpX, and I’ve run into some confusion while working with it. I would really appreciate some guidance.

I noticed that the plane of the antenna emits lasers in both the front and back directions, and there are localized sources on the plane. In most cases, only one side of the laser is used. In my personal understanding, the antenna should be placed as far away from the particle as possible to avoid significant influence on the particle. For example, when the laser pulse width is long enough, the particle may pass through the plane (plasma expansion) and be affected by the laser in the opposite direction, which is not the expected situation. However, I saw that the antenna in the examples inputs_test_2d_laser_ion_acc and inputs_base_3d are set in the pre-plasma and electrons respectively, which makes me a little confused. Maybe the laser setting has less influence in these examples?

In addition, I am now considering using an oblique incident laser to hit a planar target, but the antenna plane seems to be truncated by the boundary of the simulation area. I need to set the inclined laser plane carefully, and I am also worried about some effects in the area behind the antenna plane mentioned above(In addition to plasma expansion, the reflected light after the laser hits the target will overlap with the laser on the other side of the plane.). Although it may not have much impact on the area I am interested in, this part of the area will become redundant. Is there a more suitable method for setting up oblique incident lasers?

I’m still learning, so any help would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance!