The influence of preformed plasma on the surface-guided lateral transport of energetic electrons in ultraintense short laser–foil interactions

Yuan, Xiaohui; Carroll, D. C.; Zheng, Jian; Liu, J L; Gray, R. J.; Brenner, C. M.; Coury, M.; Chen, L.M.; Fang, Yuan; Tresca, O.; Zielbauer, B.; Kühl, T.; Li, Y.T.; Neely, D.; Sheng, Zheng-Ming; McKenna, P.

doi:10.1088/0741-3335/56/5/055001

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Similar modifications due to electron lateral transportation and refluxing may explain the similar beam divergence and spectra shape in LC and HC situations for S-targets. The field at the target edge at τ = t 318 0 is stronger than that in the HC situation leading to more pronounced edge proton emission as observed in the experiment, which is consistent with previous results that larger scalelength preplasma could enhance the fast electron lateral spreading along the target surface [36,37]. Due to limited computation capability, we could not run simulations for a longer time and with a larger simulation box to trace the proton beam distributions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Different effects of laser contrast on proton emission from normal large foils and transverse-size-reduced targets

Fang

Yang

et al. 2016

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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We report experimental results on the effects of laser contrast on beam divergence and energy spectrum of protons emitted from ultrashort intense laser interactions with normal large foils and transverse-size-reduced targets. Correlations between beam divergence and spectral shape are found. Large divergence and near-plateau shape energy spectrum are observed for both types of targets when the laser pulse contrast is low. With high contrast laser irradiation, proton beam divergence is remarkably reduced and the energy spectral shape is changed to exponential for large foil targets. In comparison, a similar large divergence and the near-plateau spectral shape remain for transverse-size-reduced targets. The results could be explained by the preplasma formation and target deformation at different laser contrasts and modified accelerating sheath field evolution in transverse-size-reduced target, which were supported by the 2D hydrodynamic and PIC simulations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Different effects of laser contrast on proton emission from normal large foils and transverse-size-reduced targets

Fang

Yang

et al. 2016

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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“…The strong proton line signal at the lowest energy in all cases is likely to be produced by protons accelerated from the cylindrical target stalk. In addition to flowing along the hemisphere-cone target, fast electrons will flow along the stalk [25,36] creating a relatively weak electric field that will ionise and accelerate protons along the normal to the curved stalk surface. A vertically orientated stalk will produce a horizontally orientated line of low energy protons, similar to that of a wire target [37,38].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geometry effects on energy selective focusing of laser-driven protons with open and closed hemisphere-cone targets

King,

Higginson,

McGuffey

et al. 2023

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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Relativistically intense laser light interacting with solid density targets can accelerate protons to multi-MeV energies via the target normal sheath acceleration process. The use of hollow hemisphere targets with a hollow conical region to focus protons of selected energies, for applications such as isochoric heating of matter and for the fast ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion, is explored for laser intensity ∼ 10 20 Wcm−2. Specifically, the effects of having the cone tip open or closed is investigated experimentally and via a programme of scaled particle-in-cell simulations. The open cone configuration is found to result in proton focusing in the energy range of 9 to 24 MeV, and produce an annular profile for higher energy components, up to 55 MeV, while the spatial distribution of lower energy components remains unchanged. By contrast, for the closed cone case, the focusing effect is diminished by the fields present on the inner wall of the cone tip. Simulations reveal that strong electrostatic and magnetic fields present on the inner surfaces of the target induce the focusing effect with the open cone, but also result in proton divergence in the case of the closed cone. Additionally, the simulations demonstrate the possibility to tailor the cone geometry to select the energy range over which the focusing occurs.

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Directed fast electron beams in ultraintense picosecond laser irradiated solid targets

Lin

Yuan

et al. 2015

Applied Physics Letters

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We report on fast electron transport and emission patterns from solid targets irradiated by s-polarized, relativistically intense, picosecond laser pulses. A beam of multi-MeV electrons is found to be transported along the target surface in the laser polarization direction. The spatial-intensity and energy distributions of this beam are compared with the beam produced along the laser propagation axis. It is shown that even for peak laser intensities an order of magnitude higher than the relativistic threshold; laser polarization still plays an important role in electron energy transport. Results from 3D particle-in-cell simulations confirm the findings. The characterization of directional beam emission is important for applications requiring efficient energy transfer, including secondary photon and ion source development

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The influence of preformed plasma on the surface-guided lateral transport of energetic electrons in ultraintense short laser–foil interactions

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Different effects of laser contrast on proton emission from normal large foils and transverse-size-reduced targets

Different effects of laser contrast on proton emission from normal large foils and transverse-size-reduced targets

Geometry effects on energy selective focusing of laser-driven protons with open and closed hemisphere-cone targets

Directed fast electron beams in ultraintense picosecond laser irradiated solid targets

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