TJ cm⁻³ high energy density plasma formation from intense laser-irradiated foam targets composed of disordered carbon nanowires

Abstract

High energy density plasma formation from intense laser-irradiated foam targets composed of disordered carbon nanowires is investigated using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that due to the unprecedentedly high laser energy absorption rate of the foam target, approximately three times larger as compared with simple solid targets, the plasma energy density reaches an unexplored TJ cm−3 regime at 1023 W cm−2 laser irradiation. In addition, nanowire thermal expansion caused by prepulse heating is considered. We find that after expansion, the target becomes relativistically transparent to the main pulse. The average value of particle energy density decreases slightly and its distribution tends to resemble that of solid targets. Furthermore, energy density scaling with laser intensities is given. It suggests that an even more extreme plasma state is reachable using ultraintense lasers, as the energy loss to photons caused by quantum electrodynamics effects is rather negligible.

Ultra-high-pressure generation in the relativistic transparency regime in laser-irradiated nanowire arrays

“…Further, scaling to 7 Tbar pressure was predicted. A similar simulation indicates that the energy density of 0.1 TJ cm −3 can be obtained by irradiating a laser with an intensity of 10 23 W cm −2 onto a foam target made of disordered carbon nanowires [13]. The pressure obtained with a nanowire array is comparable to the laser ICF and Z-machine at Sandia National Laboratory [19][20][21], which is of order Gbar but with a more compact setup.…”

“…Terabar pressures were predicted when a nanowire target is irradiated with an ultraintense laser. [12,13]. The formation of a high-pressure environment using z pinch and the associated instability has been extensively discussed in magnetic confinement fusion [14,15] or pulsed-power accelerators [16,17].…”

Dynamics of laser produced plasma from foam targets for future nanolithography devices and X-ray sources

“…Currently, one important issue for the interaction between laser and solid targets is that the latter is highly opaque, thus limiting the interaction region to the skin layer of the target surface. Furthermore, the electron density of the plasma produced by the leading edge of the laser will reach the critical density quickly because of the high-density of the solid target, which causes a significant fraction of the laser energy to be reflected and a rather low laser absorption rate 19 , 20 . However, reducing the initial density of target used in LPP could effectively solve this issue 21 .…”

Dynamics of Laser Produced Plasma From Foam Targets for Future Nanolithography Devices and X-Ray Sources

“…Currently, one important issue for the interaction between laser and solid targets is that the latter is highly opaque, thus limiting the interaction region to the skin layer of the target surface. Furthermore, the electron density of the plasma produced by the leading edge of the laser will reach the critical density quickly because of the highdensity of the solid target, which causes a significant fraction of the laser energy to be reflected and a rather low laser absorption rate 19,20 . However, reducing the initial density of target used in LPP could effectively solve this issue .…”