Measurement of the decay of laser-driven linear plasma wakefields

We present measurements of the temporal decay rate of one-dimensional (1D), linear Langmuir waves excited by an ultrashort laser pulse. Langmuir waves with relative amplitudes of approximately 6% were driven by 1.7 J, 50 fs laser pulses in hydrogen and deuterium plasmas of density n(e0) = 8.4x10(17) cm(-3). The wakefield lifetimes were measured to be tau(H2)(wf) = (9 +/- 2) ps and tau(D2)(wf) = (16 +/- 8) ps, respectively, for hydrogen and deuterium. The experimental results were found to be in good agreement with 2D particle-in-cell simulations. In addition to being of fundamental interest, these results are particularly relevant to the development of laser wakefield accelerators and wakefield acceleration schemes using multiple pulses, such as multipulse laser wakefield accelerators.