Radiation from particles moving in small-scale magnetic fields created in solid-density laser-plasma laboratory experiments

Abstract

Plasmas created by high-intensity lasers are often subject to the formation of kineticstreaming instabilities, such as the Weibel instability, which lead to the spontaneous generation of high-amplitude, tangled magnetic fields. These fields typically exist on small spatial scales, i.e. "sub-Larmor scales". Radiation from charged particles moving through small-scale electromagnetic (EM) turbulence has spectral characteristics distinct from both synchrotron and cyclotron radiation, and it carries valuable information on the statistical properties of the EM field structure and evolution. Consequently, this radiation from laserproduced plasmas may offer insight into the underlying electromagnetic turbulence. Here we investigate the prospects for, and demonstrate the feasibility of, such direct radiative diagnostics for mildly relativistic, solid-density laser plasmas produced in lab experiments.

On the quasi-collisionality of plasmas with small-scale electric turbulence

“…Jitter radiation may be directly observable in several of these plasma environments. In fact, there is evidence that the (magnetic) jitter radiation from mildly relativistic electrons may be observable in high-intensity solid-density laser plasma experiments (Keenan & Medvedev 2015).…”