Magnetic collimation of fast electrons in specially engineered targets irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses

Journal Article · Tue Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3553453· OSTI ID:21535184

Hongbo, Cai ^[1]; Shaoping, Zhu; Sizhong, Wu; Mo, Chen; Cangtao, Zhou ^[1]; He, X T ^[1]; Wei, Yu ^[2]; Nagatomo, Hideo ^[3]

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1. Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100094 (China)
2. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Shanghai 201800 (China)
3. Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)

The efficient magnetic collimation of fast electron flow transporting in overdense plasmas is investigated with two-dimensional collisional particle-in-cell numerical simulations. It is found that the specially engineered targets exhibiting either high-resistivity-core-low-resistivity-cladding structure or low-density-core-high-density-cladding structure can collimate fast electrons. Two main mechanisms to generate collimating magnetic fields are found. In high-resistivity-core-low-resistivity-cladding structure targets, the magnetic field at the interfaces is generated by the gradients of the resistivity and fast electron current, while in low-density-core-high-density-cladding structure targets, the magnetic field is generated by the rapid changing of the flow velocity of the background electrons in transverse direction (perpendicular to the flow velocity) caused by the density jump. The dependences of the maximal magnetic field on the incident laser intensity and plasma density, which are studied by numerical simulations, are supported by our analytical calculations.

• OSTI ID: 21535184
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3553453; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRONS
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
LASERS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
LEPTONS
MECHANICS
PLASMA
RADIATION TRANSPORT
SIMULATION