Generation of magnetized collisionless shocks by a novel, laser-driven magnetic piston

Journal Article · Sun Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4736846· OSTI ID:22072518

Schaeffer, D B; Everson, E T; Constantin, C G; Bondarenko, A S; Morton, L A; Niemann, C ^[1]; Winske, D; Flippo, K A; Montgomery, D S ^[2]; Gaillard, S A ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
3. Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden (Germany)

We present experiments on the Trident laser facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory which demonstrate key elements in the production of laser-driven, magnetized, laboratory-scaled astrophysical collisionless shocks. These include the creation of a novel magnetic piston to couple laser energy to a background plasma and the generation of a collisionless shock precursor. We also observe evidence of decoupling between a laser-driven fast ion population and a background plasma, in contrast to the coupling of laser-ablated slow ions with background ions through the magnetic piston. 2D hybrid simulations further support these developments and show the coupling of the slow to ambient ions, the formation of a magnetic and density compression pulses consistent with a collisionless shock, and the decoupling of the fast ions.

• OSTI ID: 22072518
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 19; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPRESSION
COUPLING
DECOUPLING
IONS
LANL
LASERS
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PULSES
SHOCK WAVES