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Title: What is the surface temperature of a solid irradiated by a Petawatt laser?

Abstract

In this paper, when a solid target is irradiated by a Petawatt laser pulse, its surface is heated to tens of millions of degrees within a few femtoseconds, facilitating a diffusive heat wave and the acceleration of electrons to MeV energies into the target. Using numerically converged collisional particle-in-cell simulations, we observe a competition between two surface heating mechanisms–inverse bremsstrahlung in solid density on the one hand and electron scattering on turbulent electric fields on the other. Collisionless heating effectively dominates above the relativistic intensity threshold. Our numerical results show that a high-contrast 40 fs, f/5 laser pulse with 1 J energy will heat the skin layer to 5 keV, and the inside of the target over several microns deep to bulk temperatures in the range of 10–100 eV at solid density.

Authors:
 [1];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1474270
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1325835
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-743969; LLNL-JRNL-671210
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X; PHPAEN; 898490
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344; AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 23; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Kemp, A. J., and Divol, L. What is the surface temperature of a solid irradiated by a Petawatt laser?. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4963334.
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Kemp, A. J., & Divol, L. What is the surface temperature of a solid irradiated by a Petawatt laser?. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4963334
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Kemp, A. J., and Divol, L. Wed . "What is the surface temperature of a solid irradiated by a Petawatt laser?". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4963334. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1474270.
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@article{osti_1474270,
title = {What is the surface temperature of a solid irradiated by a Petawatt laser?},
author = {Kemp, A. J. and Divol, L.},
abstractNote = {In this paper, when a solid target is irradiated by a Petawatt laser pulse, its surface is heated to tens of millions of degrees within a few femtoseconds, facilitating a diffusive heat wave and the acceleration of electrons to MeV energies into the target. Using numerically converged collisional particle-in-cell simulations, we observe a competition between two surface heating mechanisms–inverse bremsstrahlung in solid density on the one hand and electron scattering on turbulent electric fields on the other. Collisionless heating effectively dominates above the relativistic intensity threshold. Our numerical results show that a high-contrast 40 fs, f/5 laser pulse with 1 J energy will heat the skin layer to 5 keV, and the inside of the target over several microns deep to bulk temperatures in the range of 10–100 eV at solid density.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4963334},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 9,
volume = 23,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Wed Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4963334
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Modeling pulse-cleaning plasma mirrors from dielectric response to saturation: A particle-in-cell approach
    journal, October 2019

    • Cochran, Ginevra E.; Poole, Patrick L.; Schumacher, Douglass W.
    • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 10
    • DOI: 10.1063/1.5109683
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