Collisionless shock generation in high-speed counterstreaming plasma flows by a high-power laser

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3524269· OSTI ID:21532095

Morita, T; Aoki, H ^[1]; Sakawa, Y; Kuramitsu, Y; Kato, T N ^[2]; Dono, S; Tanji, H ^[3]; Li, Y T; Zhang, Y; Liu, X ^[4]; Zhong, J Y ^[5]; Takabe, H ^[1]; Zhang, J ^[6]

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1. Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Machikane-yama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043 (Japan)
2. Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)
3. Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)
4. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)
5. The National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012 (China)
6. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

The experimental demonstration of the formation of a strong electrostatic (ES) collisionless shock has been carried out with high-speed counterstreaming plasmas, produced by a high-power laser irradiation, without external magnetic field. The nearly four times density jump observed in the experiment shows a high Mach-number shock. This large density jump is attributed to the compression of the downstream plasma by momentum transfer by ion reflection of the upstream plasma. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation shows the production of a collisionless high Mach-number ES shock with counterstreaming interaction of two plasma slabs with different temperatures and densities, as pointed out by Sorasio et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045005 (2006)]. It is speculated that the shock discontinuity is balanced with the momentum of incoming and reflected ions and the predominant pressure of the electrons in the downstream with PIC simulation.

• OSTI ID: 21532095
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 17; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
MACH NUMBER
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PLASMA PRESSURE
PLASMA SIMULATION
SHOCK WAVES
SIMULATION
VELOCITY