Electron energy spectrum in circularly polarized laser irradiated overdense plasma
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad 201003, UP (India)
A circularly polarized laser normally impinged on an overdense plasma thin foil target is shown to accelerate the electrons in the skin layer towards the rear, converting the quiver energy into streaming energy exactly if one ignores the space charge field. The energy distribution of electrons is close to Maxwellian with an upper cutoff ε{sub max}=mc{sup 2}[(1+a{sub 0}{sup 2}){sup 1/2}−1], where a{sub 0}{sup 2}=(1+(2ω{sup 2}/ω{sub p}{sup 2})|a{sub in}|{sup 2}){sup 2}−1, |a{sub in}| is the normalized amplitude of the incident laser of frequency ω, and ω{sub p} is the plasma frequency. The energetic electrons create an electrostatic sheath at the rear and cause target normal sheath acceleration of protons. The energy gain by the accelerated ions is of the order of ε{sub max}.
- OSTI ID:
- 22299706
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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