Interplay between the Weibel instability and the Biermann battery in realistic laser-solid interactions

Shukla, Nitin; Schoeffler, K. M.; Boella, Elisabetta; Vieira, Jorge; Fonseca, Ricardo; Silva, L. O.

doi:10.1103/physrevresearch.2.023129

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The effects of the laser magnetic fields and heating processes often occur at the same time as the Biermann and Weibel magnetic fields grow. It has been shown that for an intense short pulse laser where the plasma becomes relativistically hot, the Weibel field can be observed [35].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of collisions on the generation and suppression of temperature anisotropies and the Weibel instability

Schoeffler

Silva

2020

Phys. Rev. Research

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The expansion of plasma with nonparallel temperature and density gradients and the generation of a magnetic field via the Biermann battery is modeled using particle-in-cell simulations that include collisional effects via Monte Carlo methods. A scaling of the degree of collisionality shows that an anisotropy can be produced and drive the Weibel instability for gradient scales shorter than the mean free path. For larger collision rates the Biermann battery dominates as the cause of magnetic-field generation. When the most energetic particles remain collisionless the Nernst effect causes the Biermann field to be dragged with the heat flux piled up and enhanced.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of collisions on the generation and suppression of temperature anisotropies and the Weibel instability

Schoeffler

Silva

2020

Phys. Rev. Research

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“…The implications of the radially oriented filamentation upon which we report is expected to be widespread given the common experimental conditions of a high-intensity laser incident onto a submicron thick planar target, but has not garnered significant emphasis. Although previous simulation and theoretical developments by Schoeffler and Silva 22 and other works by this group [23][24][25] consider a radially oriented velocity anisotropy, Weibel instability generation in this geometry has not been widely accounted for in the literature. A closer analog of the observed filaments in this article are filaments formed from the expansion of an irradiated wire, which was observed by Quinn et al 26 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Evidence of radial Weibel instability in relativistic intensity laser-plasma interactions inside a sub-micron thick liquid target

Ngirmang

Morrison

George

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Super-intense laser plasma interaction has shown great promise as a platform for next generation particle accelerators and sources for electron, x-rays, ions and neutrons. In particular, when a relativistic intense laser focus interacts with a thin solid density target, ionized electrons are accelerated to near the speed of light (c) within an optical cycle and are pushed in the forward and transverse directions away from focus, carrying a significant portion of the laser energy. These relativistic electrons are effectively collisionless, and their interactions with the ions and surrounding cold electrons are predominantly mediated by collective electromagnetic effects of the resulting currents and charge separation. Thus, a deeper understanding of subsequent high energy ions generated from various mechanisms and their optimization requires knowledge of the relativistic electron dynamics and the fields they produce. In addition to producing MV/m quasi-static fields, accelerating the ions and confining the majority of the electrons near the bulk of the laser target, these relativistic electron currents are subject to plasma instabilities like the Weibel instability as they propagate through the thermal population in the bulk target. In this work, we present high temporal (100 fs) and spatial (1 μm) resolution shadowgraphy video capturing relativistic radial ionization front expansion and the appearance of filamentation radiating from the laser spot within a sub-micron thick liquid sheet target. Filamentation within the region persists for several picoseconds and seeds the eventual recombination and heating dynamics on the nanosecond timescale. A large scale three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of the interaction revealed the presence of strong magnetic fields characteristic of Weibel Instability, and corroborated the relativistic radial expansion of the ionization front, whose speed was determined to be 0.77c. Both the experimental and simulation results strongly point towards the target field ionization and the outward expanding hot electron current as the cause of the radial expansion.

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“…For example, MHD simulations of indirect drive ICF suggest that large magnetic fields may be generated by the Biermann battery but the effect of the flux limiter ( f = 0.15 was used) on these predictions was not explored [ 4 ]. Recently particle in cell kinetic simulations have been used to demonstrate further departures from simple MHD modelling, for example the formation of filaments due to the Weibel instability [ 24 , 25 ]. This effect is not included in our modelling as it is reliant on higher order anisotropy in the electron distribution function.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The inadequacy of a magnetohydrodynamic approach to the Biermann battery

Ridgers

Arran

Bissell

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Magnetic fields can be generated in plasmas by the Biermann battery when the electric field produced by the electron pressure gradient has a curl. The commonly employed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of the Biermann battery breaks down when the electron distribution function is distorted away from Maxwellian. Using both MHD and kinetic simulations of a laser-plasma interaction relevant to inertial confinement fusion we have shown that this distortion can reduce the Biermann-producing electric field by around 50%. More importantly, the use of a flux limiter in an MHD treatment to deal with the effect of the non-Maxwellian electron distribution on electron thermal transport leads to a completely unphysical prediction of the Biermann-producing electric field and so results in erroneous predictions for the generated magnetic field. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

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Interplay between the Weibel instability and the Biermann battery in realistic laser-solid interactions

Cited by 25 publications

References 44 publications

Effects of collisions on the generation and suppression of temperature anisotropies and the Weibel instability

Effects of collisions on the generation and suppression of temperature anisotropies and the Weibel instability

Evidence of radial Weibel instability in relativistic intensity laser-plasma interactions inside a sub-micron thick liquid target

The inadequacy of a magnetohydrodynamic approach to the Biermann battery

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