No Arabic abstract
Production of the huge longitudinal magnetic fields by using an ultraintense laser pulse irradiating a solenoid target is considered. Through three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, it is shown that the longitudinal magnetic field up to ten kilotesla can be observed in the ultraintense laser-solenoid target interactions. The finding is associated with both fast and return electron currents in the solenoid target. The huge longitudinal magnetic field is of interest for a number of important applications, which include controlling the divergence of laser-driven energetic particles for medical treatment, fast-ignition in inertial fusion, etc., as an example, the well focused and confined directional electron beams are realized by using the solenoid target.
We derive upper and lower bounds on the absorption of ultraintense laser light by solids as a function of fundamental laser and plasma parameters. These limits emerge naturally from constrained optimization techniques applied to a generalization of the laser-solid interaction as a strongly-driven, relativistic, two degree of freedom Maxwell-Vlasov system. We demonstrate that the extrema and the phase-space-averaged absorption must always increase with intensity, and increase most rapidly when $10^{18} < I_L lambda_L^2 < 10^{20}$ W $mu$m$^2/$cm$^{2}$. Our results indicate that the fundamental empirical trend towards increasing fractional absorption with irradiance therefore reflects the underlying phase space constraints.
Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation is used to investigate the witness proton acceleration in underdense plasma with a short intense Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser pulse. Driven by the LG10 laser pulse, a special bubble with an electron pillar on the axis is formed, in which protons can be well-confined by the generated transversal focusing field and accelerated by the longitudinal wakefield. The risk of scattering prior to acceleration with a Gaussian laser pulse in underdense plasma is avoided, and protons are accelerated stably to much higher energy. In simulation, a proton beam has been accelerated to 7 GeV from 1 GeV in underdense tritium plasma driven by a 2.14x1022 W/cm2 LG10 laser pulse.
We report spatially and temporally resolved measurements of magnetic fields generated by petawatt laser-solid interactions with high spatial resolution, using optical polarimetry. The polarimetric measurements map the megagauss magnetic field profiles generated by the fast electron currents at the target rear. The magnetic fields at the rear of a 50 $mu$m thick aluminum target exhibit distinct and unambiguous signatures of electron beam filamentation. These results are corroborated by hybrid simulations.
We use 3D simulations to demonstrate that high-quality ultra-relativistic electron bunches can be generated upon reflection of a twisted laser beam off a plasma mirror. The unique topology of the beam with a twist index $|l| = 1$ creates an accelerating structure dominated by longitudinal laser electric and magnetic fields in the near-axis region. We show that the magnetic field is essential for creating a train of dense mono-energetic bunches. For a 6.8~PW laser, the energy reaches 1.6~GeV with a spread of 5.5%. The bunch duration is 320 as, its charge is 60~pC and density is $sim 10^{27}$~m$^{-3}$. The results are confirmed by an analytical model for the electron energy gain. These results enable development of novel laser-driven accelerators at multi-PW laser facilities.
A scheme for controlling the direction of energetic proton beam driven by intense laser pulse is proposed. Simulations show that a precisely directed and collimated proton bunch can be produced by a sub-picosecond laser pulse interacting with a target consisting of a thin solid-density disk foil with a solenoid coil attached to its back at the desired angle. It is found that two partially overlapping sheath fields are induced. As a result, the accelerated protons are directed parallel to the axis of the solenoid, and their spread angle is also reduced by the overlapping sheath fields. The proton properties can thus be controlled by manipulating the solenoid parameters. Such highly directional and collimated energetic protons are useful in the high-energy-density as well as medical sciences.