Three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of electron beams created via reflection of intense laser light from a water target

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4945739· OSTI ID:22598962

Orban, Chris; Feister, Scott ^[1]; Morrison, John T. ^[2]; Frische, Kyle D. ^[3]; Chowdhury, Enam A. ^[1]; Roquemore, W. M. ^[4]

---

1. Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 (United States)
2. National Research Council, Washington, DC 20001 (United States)
3. Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc., Plain City, Ohio 45459 (United States)
4. Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB, Ohio 45433 (United States)

We present 3D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) modeling of an ultra-intense laser experiment by the Extreme Light group at the Air Force Research Laboratory using the Large Scale Plasma (LSP) PIC code. This is the first time PIC simulations have been performed in 3D for this experiment which involves an ultra-intense, short-pulse (30 fs) laser interacting with a water jet target at normal incidence. The laser-energy-to-ejected-electron-energy conversion efficiency observed in 2D(3v) simulations were comparable to the conversion efficiencies seen in the 3D simulations, but the angular distribution of ejected electrons in the 2D(3v) simulations displayed interesting differences with the 3D simulations' angular distribution; the observed differences between the 2D(3v) and 3D simulations were more noticeable for the simulations with higher intensity laser pulses. An analytic plane-wave model is discussed which provides some explanation for the angular distribution and energies of ejected electrons in the 2D(3v) simulations. We also performed a 3D simulation with circularly polarized light and found a significantly higher conversion efficiency and peak electron energy, which is promising for future experiments.

• OSTI ID: 22598962
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
AIR
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
ENERGY CONVERSION
JETS
LASERS
PARTICLES
PEAKS
PLASMA
PULSES
REFLECTION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
WATER
WAVE PROPAGATION