Electron vortices produced by ultraintense laser pulses

Journal Article · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.3562· OSTI ID:285680

Bulanov, S V; Lontano, M ^[1]; Esirkepov, T Z ^[2]; Pegoraro, F ^[3]; Pukhov, A M ^[4]

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1. Institute for Plasma Physics, CNR, Milan (Italy)
2. Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudnyi (Russia)
3. Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Turin, Turin (Italy)
4. Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching (Germany)

Particle-in-cell simulations show that finite width and length laser pulses subject to relativistic self-focusing propagate in an underdense plasma in a {open_quote}{open_quote}bullet{close_quote}{close_quote} shape and produce a quasistatic magnetic field. This field remains behind the pulse and forms a magnetic wake associated with a row of electron fluid vortices which are described by the Hasegawa-Mima equation. The vortices propagate much more slowly than the pulse and evolve into an antisymmetric configuration which is shown to be stable when the distance between its vortices is greater than the electron skin depth. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• OSTI ID: 285680
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 76; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRONS
FOCUSING
LASERS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PULSE PROPAGATION
PULSES
VORTICES
WIDTH