The radiation reaction effects in the ultra-intense and ultra-short laser foil interaction regime

Abstract

The extreme laser intensity, IL>1023 W/cm2, will be made possible by Extreme Light Infrastructure. Such an ultra-intense and ultra-short laser pulse promises to promote laser-matter interaction into the exotic quantum-electro-dynamical regime. Electrons quivering in such a strong laser pulse experience a radiation reaction (RR) friction force by radiating high frequency photons. These extreme intensities will also make possible acceleration of heavy ions in new regimes. In this paper, the heavy ion beam generation based on ultra-intense and ultra-short laser foil interaction is systematically studied. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations which include an energy conserving electrodynamics model for RR force and the corresponding γ-photons emission have been used. The energy partition into electrons, ions, and photons has been investigated in relation to efficient generation of heavy ion beams by linearly and circularly polarized (LP and CP) laser and for different foil thicknesses. It is found that the CP and LP cases each have an optimal foil thickness for efficient ion beam generation; the RR force has a stronger effect upon laser coupling to an opaque foil target for an LP laser than a CP laser; and the emitted photons are proven to be an efficient source of γ-ray emission with the peak frequency as high as 106∼108 times the laser frequency.

Identifying the source of super-high energetic electrons in the presence of pre-plasma in laser–matter interaction at relativistic intensities

“…To ensure the accuracy of the simulation, as we have done previously [24], we record the energy history of laser flux energy entering the simulation box (E l , blue line), electromagnetic field energy in the simulation box (E em , black line), and particle kinetic energy in the simulation box (E k , red line), which is shown in Fig. 1 (b).…”

Collisionless shock acceleration of quasimonoenergetic ions in ultrarelativistic regime

“…Laser-driven-ion acceleration employs several different schemes for accelerating the ions e.g. target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) [7], radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], direct laser acceleration [20], breakout-after-burner (BOA) [21], and collisionless shock acceleration (CSA) [22][23][24][25][26] etc. TNSA was the first mechanism proposed for laser-driven ion acceleration and it works in every interaction scenario.…”

Particle-in-cell simulations of laser–plasma interactions at solid densities and relativistic intensities: the role of atomic processes

“…However except the electromagnetic dynamics, some atomic processes might also play important roles, like field ionization (multi-photon ionization, tunnelling ionization and barrier-suppression ionization) [36] and quantum electrodynamics (QED) [37] . In our recent works [36, 37] , both field ionization and QED models had been established and implemented into the PIC code. However the greatest challenge of PIC simulations is the fact that one has to include the regions where solid-density effects also dominate.…”

“…In front of the target, it is the intense laser fields that dominate the interactions. However except the electromagnetic dynamics, some atomic processes might also play important roles, like field ionization (multi-photon ionization, tunnelling ionization and barrier-suppression ionization) [36] and quantum-electrodynamics (QED) [37]. In our recent works [36,37], both field ionization and QED models had been established and implemented into the PIC code.…”

“…Setup of 1D, 2D or 3D is defined in pre-compilation to compile the code to the specific LAPINE-1D, 2D or 3D.Physical models. Many advanced physical modules have been implemented into LAPINE code, which include bulk ionization [3] (coupling impact ionization, electron–ion recombination and ionization potential depression by surrounding plasmas), binary collisions [4] (partially ionized plasmas and also pure plasmas for all temperature ranges), field ionization [36] and QED [37] modules. Note that all the physical modules have been well benchmarked and applied for related physical research.Numerical scheme.…”