High energy electron beam generation during interaction of a laser accelerated proton beam with a gas-discharge plasma

Abstract

The study of the interaction between ion beam and plasma is very important to the areas of inertial fusion energy and high energy density physics (HEDP). With detailed one-dimensional (1D) electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we investigate here the interaction of a laser-accelerated proton beam assuming an ideal monoenergetic beam with a gas-discharge plasma. After the saturation stage of the two-stream instability excited by the proton beam, significant high energy electrons are observed, with maximum energy approaching 2 MeV, and a new two-stream instability occurs between the high energy electrons and background electrons. The trajectories of plasma electrons are studied, showing the process of electron trapping and de-trapping from the wakefield.