No Arabic abstract
Long-distance collimation of fast electron beams generated by laser-metallic-wire targets has been observed in recent experiments, while the mechanism behind this phenomenon remains unclear. In this work, we investigate in detail the laser-wire interaction processes with a simplified model and Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo simulations, and demonstrate the significance of the self magnetic fields of the beams in the long-distance collimation. Good agreements of simulated image plate patterns with various experiments and detailed analysis of electron trajectories show that the self magnetic fields provide restoring force that is critical for the beam collimation. By studying the wire-length dependence of beam divergence in certain experiments, we clarify that the role of the metallic wire is to balance the space-charge effect and thus maintain the collimation.
The robustness of a structured collimation device is discussed for an intense-laser-produced ion beam. In this paper the ion beam collimation is realized by the solid structured collimation device, which produces the transverse electric field; the electric field contributes to reduce the ion beam transverse velocity and collimate the ion beam. Our 2.5 dimensional particle-in cell simulations demonstrate that the collimation device is rather robust against the changes in the laser parameters and the collimation target sizes. The intense short-pulse lasers are now available, and are used to generate an ion beam. The issues in the laser ion acceleration include an ion beam collimation, ion energy spectrum control, ion production efficiency, ion energy control, ion beam bunching, etc. The laser-produced ion beam tends to expand in the transverse and longitudinal directions during the ion beam propagation. The ion beam collimation is focused in this paper.
The plasma dynamics resulting from the simultaneous impact, of two equal, ultra-intense laser pulses, in two spatially separated spots, onto a dense target is studied via particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The simulations show that electrons accelerated to relativistic speeds, cross the target and exit at its rear surface. Most energetic electrons are bound to the rear surface by the ambipolar electric field and expand along it. Their current is closed by a return current in the target, and this current configuration generates strong surface magnetic fields. The two electron sheaths collide at the midplane between the laser impact points. The magnetic repulsion between the counter-streaming electron beams separates them along the surface normal direction, before they can thermalize through other beam instabilities. This magnetic repulsion is also the driving mechanism for the beam-Weibel (filamentation) instability, which is thought to be responsible for magnetic field growth close to the internal shocks of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets. The relative strength of this repulsion compared to the competing electrostatic interactions, which is evidenced by the simulations, suggests that the filamentation instability can be examined in an experimental setting.
The dynamics of magnetic fields with amplitude of several tens of Megagauss, generated at both sides of a solid target irradiated with a high intensity (? 1019W/cm2) picosecond laser pulse, has been spatially and temporally resolved using a proton imaging technique. The amplitude of the magnetic fields is sufficiently large to have a constraining effect on the radial expansion of the plasma sheath at the target surfaces. These results, supported by numerical simulations and simple analytical modeling, may have implications for ion acceleration driven by the plasma sheath at the rear side of the target as well as for the laboratory study of self-collimated high-energy plasma jets.
The double laser pulse approach to relativistic electron beam (REB) collimation has been investigated at the LULI-ELFIE facility. In this scheme, the magnetic field generated by the first laser-driven REB is used to guide a second delayed REB. We show how electron beam collimation can be controlled by properly adjusting laser parameters. By changing the ratio of focus size and the delay time between the two pulses we found a maximum of electron beam collimation clearly dependent on the focal spot size ratio of the two laser pulses and related to the magnetic field dynamics. Cu-K alpha and CTR imaging diagnostics were implemented to evaluate the collimation effects on the respectively low energy (< 100 keV) and high energy (> MeV) components of the REB.
An external static magnetic field with its strength B~10T may result in the laser wake wave-breaking upon changing the electron motion in the vicinity of maximal density ramp of a wave period. This, as shown by numerical simulations, can change the resonance character of the electron self-injection in the laser wake-field; a total charge loaded in the acceleration phase of laser pulse wake can be controlled by a proper choice of the magnetic field strength.