Hot electron energy distributions from ultraintense laser solid interactions

Chen, Hui; Wilks, S. C.; Kruer, W. L.; Patel, P. K.; Shepherd, R.

doi:10.1063/1.3080197

Cited by 49 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Table 1 summarizes the parameters of Charge of electrons Q accelerated to energies >100 MeV L r = 1.8 μm η = 7.0% η = 6.8% Q = 21.7 nC Q = 0.9 nC L r = 20 μm η = 8.5% η = 7.1% Q = 11.8 nC Q = 1.9 nC N. E. Andreev et al 120 electrons accelerated to high energies for two typical scale lengths of the preplasma density L r = 1.8 and 20 μm. For the grazing incidence of the laser pulse, the substantial increase of the characteristic energy, number, and collimation of electrons accelerated along the target surface is demonstrated (see Figs 5-7) in comparison with the ponderomotive scaling of laser-target interaction (Wilks et al, 1992;Chen et al, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron acceleration at grazing incidence of a subpicosecond intense laser pulse onto a plane solid target

et al. 2015

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Generation of hot electrons at grazing incidence of a subpicosecond relativistic-intense laser pulse onto a plane solid target is analyzed for the parameters of petawatt class laser systems. We study preplasma formation on the surface of solid aluminum targets produced by laser prepulses with a different time structure. For modeling of the preplasma dynamics, we use a wide-range two-temperature hydrodynamic model. As a result of simulations, the preplasma expansion under the action of the laser prepulse and the plasma density profiles for different contrast ratios of the nanosecond pedestal are found. These density profiles are used as the initial density distributions in three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of electron acceleration by the main P-polarized laser pulse. Results of modeling demonstrate a substantial increase of the characteristic energy and number of accelerated electrons for the grazing incidence of a subpicosecond intense laser pulse in comparison with the ponderomotive scaling of laser-target interaction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron acceleration at grazing incidence of a subpicosecond intense laser pulse onto a plane solid target

et al. 2015

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“…Vacuum electron measurements first indicated an experimental connection 5 between observed electron spectra and the ponderomotive theory 8 of laser-electron acceleration at the critical density. More recent experiments 9 have suggested a similarity between short time scale, small spatial scale PIC simulations of the laser plasma interaction, and the experimental electron spectrum. Newly published PIC simulations of surface electron transport 10 suggest no change to a slightly warmer escaping electron spectrum for a 0.3 J electron beam and an increase in the number of electrons escaping the target with the target's size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Effects of target charging and ion emission on the energy spectrum of emitted electrons

Link¹,

Freeman²,

Schumacher³

et al. 2011

Physics of Plasmas

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We present numerical simulations of the energy spectrum of electrons escaping from a target struck by an ultra-intense laser pulse using 2D implicit hybrid particle in cell code LSP (large scale plasma) [D. R. Welch et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 063105 (2006)] and simple 1D capacitor model. The simulated energy spectrum as recorded by an electron spectrometer is found to differ significantly from the spectrum computed within the target. Analysis of the LSP simulations suggests two major mechanisms are responsible for this phenomenon: (1) The emitted electron energy spectrum is heavily influenced by the self-consistent electric fields generated along the target surface as the electrons escape and (2) these fields are themselves substantially modified by the simultaneous departure of accelerated surface ions. For electrons with internal energy greater than 4 MeV, both models predict a good correlation between the slope temperature of the input electron spectrum and that measured in a vacuum. We discuss the application of the inversion problem of obtaining internal electron energy distributions from experimental data.

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“…First is the well-known laser wake-field scheme 8 where a short pulse laser interacts with low density plasma to produce a directional and high energy electron beam; however, the typical currents produced by the wake-field mechanism are lower than is generally desired for the above applications. On the other hand, solid-target interactions produce high current electron beams but suffer from broad energy [9][10][11][12][13][14] and angular spread 15,16 . In this case, the relativistic or "hot" electron population is typically generated when an intense laser interacts with the pre-formed plasma generated by amplified spontaneous emission incident on the solid target starting a few ns before the short-pulse laser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the origin of super-hot electrons from intense laser interactions with solid targets having moderate scale length preformed plasmas

Krygier¹,

Schumacher²,

Freeman³

2014

Physics of Plasmas

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We use particle-in-cell modeling to identify the acceleration mechanism responsible for the observed generation of super-hot electrons in ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions with solid targets with pre-formed plasma. We identify several features of direct laser acceleration (DLA) that drive the generation of super-hot electrons. We find that, in this regime, electrons that become super-hot are primarily injected by a looping mechanism that we call loop-injected direct acceleration (LIDA).

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Hot electron energy distributions from ultraintense laser solid interactions

Cited by 49 publications

References 30 publications

Electron acceleration at grazing incidence of a subpicosecond intense laser pulse onto a plane solid target

Electron acceleration at grazing incidence of a subpicosecond intense laser pulse onto a plane solid target

Effects of target charging and ion emission on the energy spectrum of emitted electrons

On the origin of super-hot electrons from intense laser interactions with solid targets having moderate scale length preformed plasmas

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