Steady plasma channel formation and particle acceleration in an interaction of an ultraintense laser with near-critical density plasma

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3559463· OSTI ID:21537259

Gu, Y J; Kong, Q; Li, Y Y; Ban, H Y; Zhu, Z ^[1]; Kawata, S ^[2]

---

1. Applied Ion Beam Physics Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433 (China)
2. Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Sciences, Utsunomiya University, Yohtoh 7-1-2, Utsunomiya 321-8585 (Japan)

A well-defined near-steady plasma channel is successfully formed in an interaction of an intense short-pulse laser with a near-critical underdense plasma. The laser is well self-focused in the plasma channel. Our 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations also demonstrate a violent electron acceleration with a effective gradient of several tens of GeV/cm by a strong longitudinal charge-separated field. At the same time, a strong ion acceleration appears at the rear plasma boundary. The results present a regime for the plasma channel formation and the particle acceleration by ultrashort laser-plasma interaction.

• OSTI ID: 21537259
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3559463; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
INTERACTIONS
LASERS
PARTICLES
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA SIMULATION
SIMULATION