关键词: 近临界密度/
等离子体薄层/
泡沫靶/
Betatron共振加速
English Abstract
High energetic electron bunches from lasernear critical density layer interaction
Wang Jian1,2,Cai Da-Feng1,
Zhao Zong-Qing2,
Gu Yu-Qiu2
1.Department of Physics, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang 641110, China;
2.Laser Fusion Research Center, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China
Fund Project:Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11375161, 11605095).Received Date:16 October 2016
Accepted Date:11 December 2016
Published Online:05 April 2017
Abstract:In this paper, we report our results from interactions between sub-picosecond laser and relativistic near-critical density plasma layer. To create the near-critical density plasma layer, low density foam targets are utilized in our experiments. The foam is comprised of tri-cellulose acetate. Their average densities vary from 1 mg/cm3 to 5 mg/cm3, corresponding to full ionization densities ranging from 0.6nc to 3nc. When laser pulse is incident on the near-critical density plasma, some energetic bunches with a large quantity of charges are measured in most of the shots. The maximum charge quantity reaches to 6.1 nC/sr. Furthermore, the observed electron energy spectrum is Boltzmann-like with a wide plateau at the tail of the energy spectrum, rather than a Maxwell-like. The concept of average temperature is not available any more, and we define average effective temperature instead, namely the slope temperature. Fitting the Boltzmann-like spectrum exponentially, we find that the average effective temperature even exceeds 8 MeV at 7.51019 W/cm2, far beyond the ponderomotive limit. Aiming at analyzing the implication of physics, several two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are performed. The PIC simulations indicate that the hole-boring effect and relativistic self-transparency play an important role in the electrons heating process. At the earlier stage of heating process, a short plasma channel is created by the hole-boring effect and relativistic self-transparency. The length and the width of the plasma channel are about tens of micrometers and several micrometers respectively. Around the plasma channel, there is an intensive azimuthal magnetic field. The magnitude of the azimuthal magnetic field is 100 MGs. However, the radical electrostatic field is not seen. The possible reason is that the plasma channel would be cavitated by the hole-boring effect. As a result, the electrons will experience Betatron resonance in the magnetized plasma channel. The traverse momentum of the electron would be converted into forward momentum. Assisted by the Betatron resonance, the electrons gain energies from the laser directly and efficiently. Thus, the average effective temperatures of the electron bunches are much higher than predicted by the ponderomotive scaling law. Besides, we also conducte another simulation to instigate the differences by adopting different laser polarizations. Within our expectation, the electron spectrum of the P-polarization accords well with the experimental result, while the electron spectrum of the S-polarization obviously deviates from the experimental result. It also demonstrates that the Betatron resonance heating dominates the electron acceleration process. This research paves the way to generating the highly energetic bunches with a large quantity of charges, and wound also be helpful for producing the high-bright laser bremsstrahlung sources in future.
Keywords: near relativistic critical density/
plasma layer/
foam target/
Betaron resonance
