Impact of pre-plasma on fast electron generation and transport from short pulse, high intensity lasers

Peebles, J.; McGuffey, C.; Krauland, C. M.; Jarrott, L. C.; Sorokovikova, A.; Wei, M. S.; Park, J.; Chen, H.; McLean, H. S.; Wagner, C.; Spinks, M.; Gaul, E. W.; Dyer, G.; Hegelich, B. M.; Martinez, M.; Donovan, M.; Ditmire, T.; Krasheninnikov, S. I.; Beg, F. N.

doi:10.1088/0029-5515/56/1/016007

Title: Impact of pre-plasma on fast electron generation and transport from short pulse, high intensity lasers

Journal Article · Wed Dec 02 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Nuclear Fusion

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/56/1/016007· OSTI ID:1458693

Peebles, J. ^[1]; McGuffey, C. ^[1]; Krauland, C. M. ^[1]; Jarrott, L. C. ^[1]; Sorokovikova, A. ^[1]; Wei, M. S. ^[2]; Park, J. ^[3]; Chen, H. ^[3]; McLean, H. S. ^[3]; Wagner, C. ^[4]; Spinks, M. ^[4]; Gaul, E. W. ^[4]; Dyer, G. ^[4]; Hegelich, B. M. ^[4]; Martinez, M. ^[4]; Donovan, M. ^[4]; Ditmire, T. ^[4]; Krasheninnikov, S. I. ^[1]; Beg, F. N. ^[1]

Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Center for Energy Research
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Physics Dept.

Previous experiments and modeling examining the impact of an underdense, pre-formed plasma in laser-plasma interactions have shown that the fast electrons are generated with energies higher than predicted by ponderomotive scaling. In this paper, we report on experiments using the Texas Petawatt high intensity (150 fs, 1.5 × 10²⁰ W cm^-2) laser pulse, which were conducted to examine the mechanism for accelerating these high energy electrons. These experiments gauge the impact a controlled low density pre-formed plasma has on electron generation with a shorter time scale than previous experiments, 150–180 fs. Electron temperatures measured via magnetic spectrometer on experiment were found to be independent of preformed plasma. Supplemental computational results using 1D PIC simulations predict that super-ponderomotive electrons are generated inside a potential well in the pre-plasma. Finally, however, while the potential well is established around 150 fs, the electrons require at least an additional 50 fs to be trapped and heated inside it.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344; NA0001858

OSTI ID:: 1458693

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1238833

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-737084; 888284; TRN: US1901509

Journal Information:: Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 56, Issue 1; ISSN 0029-5515

Publisher:: IOP ScienceCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 4 works

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Cited By (6)

Beyond the ponderomotive limit: Direct laser acceleration of relativistic electrons in sub-critical plasmas Arefiev, A. V.; Khudik, V. N.; Robinson, A. P. L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4946024	journal	April 2016
Enhanced proton acceleration in an applied longitudinal magnetic field Arefiev, A.; Toncian, T.; Fiksel, G. New Journal of Physics, Vol. 18, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/10/105011	journal	October 2016
High-angle deflection of the energetic electrons by a voluminous magnetic structure in near-normal intense laser-plasma interactions Peebles, J.; Arefiev, A. V.; Zhang, S. Physical Review E, Vol. 98, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.98.053202	journal	November 2018
Beyond the ponderomotive limit: direct laser acceleration of relativistic electrons in sub-critical plasmas Arefiev, A. V.; Khudik, V. N.; Robinson, A. P. L. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1602.08758	text	January 2016
Enhanced proton acceleration in an applied longitudinal magnetic field Arefiev, Alexey; Toncian, Toma; Fiksel, Gennady arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1607.01868	text	January 2016
High-angle Deflection of the Energetic Electrons by a Voluminous Magnetic Structure in Near-normal Intense Laser-plasma Interactions Peebles, J.; Arefiev, A. V.; Zhang, S. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1810.02398	text	January 2018

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