Hot electron production in laser solid interactions with a controlled pre-pulse

Journal Article · Tue Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4870633· OSTI ID:22253313

Culfa, O.; Tallents, G. J.; Wagenaars, E.; Ridgers, C. P.; Dance, R. J.; Rossall, A. K.; Woolsey, N. C. ^[1]; Gray, R. J.; McKenna, P. ^[2]; Brown, C. D. R.; James, S. F.; Hoarty, D. J. ^[3]; Booth, N.; Robinson, A. P. L. ^[4]; Lancaster, K. L. ^[1]; Pikuz, S. A. ^[5]; Faenov, A. Ya. ^[5]; Kampfer, T.; Schulze, K. S.; Uschmann, I. ^[6]

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1. York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics, The University of York, York YO10 5DD (United Kingdom)
2. Department of Physics, SUPA, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom)
3. AWE, Aldermaston, Reading, Berkshire RG7 4PR (United Kingdom)
4. CLF, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX (United Kingdom)
5. Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 125412 (Russian Federation)
6. Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, D-07743 Jena (Germany)

Hot electron generation plays an important role in the fast ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and other applications with ultra-intense lasers. Hot electrons of temperature up to 10–20 MeV have been produced by high contrast picosecond duration laser pulses focussed to intensities of ∼10{sup 20} W cm{sup −2} with a deliberate pre-pulse on solid targets using the Vulcan Petawatt Laser facility. We present measurements of the number and temperature of hot electrons obtained using an electron spectrometer. The results are correlated to the density scale length of the plasma produced by a controlled pre-pulse measured using an optical probe diagnostic. 1D simulations predict electron temperature variations with plasma density scale length in agreement with the experiment at shorter plasma scale lengths (<7.5μm), but with the experimental temperatures (13–17 MeV) dropping below the simulation values (20–25 MeV) at longer scale lengths. The experimental results show that longer interaction plasmas produced by pre-pulses enable significantly greater number of hot electrons to be produced.

• OSTI ID: 22253313
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2014 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
ELECTRON SPECTROMETERS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
LENGTH
PETAWATT POWER RANGE
PLASMA DENSITY
PULSES
SIMULATION
SOLIDS
THERMONUCLEAR IGNITION