Effects of Electrical Resistivity on Fast Electron Transport in Relativistic Laser-solid Interactions PDF Download
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Author: David Andrew MacLellan
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 440
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This thesis reports on experimental and numerical investigations of relativistic electron transport in solids irradiated by intense (i.e. IL > 1019 Wcm−2) laser pulses. Specifically, the effect of electrical resistivity on fast electron transport is explored. The first investigation explores fast electron transport in allotropes of carbon by measuring the spatial-intensity distribution of the beam of protons accelerated from the target rear-surface. An analytical model is developed which accounts for the rear-surface fast electron sheath dynamics, ionisation and projection of the resulting beam of protons, and is used (in conjunction with the experimental measurements) to infer annular fast electron beam transport with lamentary structure in 200 um-thick diamond targets. The important role that material lattice structure has in defining electrical resistivity, which in turn defines the fast electron transport properties, is established utilising three-dimensional hybrid particle-in-cell (3D hybrid-PIC) simulations together with an analytical model of the resistive lamentation instability. The second investigation explores fast electron transport in silicon utilising both experimental measurements and 3D hybrid-PIC simulations. Annular fast electron transport is demonstrated and explained by resistively generated magnetic fields. The results indicate the potential to completely transform the beam transport pattern by tailoring the resistivity-temperature profile at temperatures as low as a few eV. Additionally, the sensitivity of annular fast electron beam transport is explored by varying the drive laser pulse parameters (i.e. energy, focal spot radius and pulse duration) and is found to be particularly sensitive to the peak laser pulse intensity. An ability to optically 'tune' the properties of an annular fast electron transport pattern may be important for applications. In the final investigation the effect that initial target temperature, and thus lattice melt, has on fast electron transport properties is demonstrated. Laser-accelerated proton beams are used to isochorically heat silicon for several tens-of-picoseconds prior to the propagation of fast electrons through the pre-heated target. This enables the influence of resistivity gradients, generated by proton-induced lattice melt, on fast electron transport properties to be explored. The experimental observation of an annular proton beam after t heat = 30 ps of proton pre-heating, which corresponds to annular electron transport within the target, is in excellent qualitative agreement with 3-D hybrid-PIC simulations of fast electron transport in a target containing an initial temperature (and thus, resistivity) gradient.
Author: David Andrew MacLellan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 440
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Book Description
This thesis reports on experimental and numerical investigations of relativistic electron transport in solids irradiated by intense (i.e. IL > 1019 Wcm−2) laser pulses. Specifically, the effect of electrical resistivity on fast electron transport is explored. The first investigation explores fast electron transport in allotropes of carbon by measuring the spatial-intensity distribution of the beam of protons accelerated from the target rear-surface. An analytical model is developed which accounts for the rear-surface fast electron sheath dynamics, ionisation and projection of the resulting beam of protons, and is used (in conjunction with the experimental measurements) to infer annular fast electron beam transport with lamentary structure in 200 um-thick diamond targets. The important role that material lattice structure has in defining electrical resistivity, which in turn defines the fast electron transport properties, is established utilising three-dimensional hybrid particle-in-cell (3D hybrid-PIC) simulations together with an analytical model of the resistive lamentation instability. The second investigation explores fast electron transport in silicon utilising both experimental measurements and 3D hybrid-PIC simulations. Annular fast electron transport is demonstrated and explained by resistively generated magnetic fields. The results indicate the potential to completely transform the beam transport pattern by tailoring the resistivity-temperature profile at temperatures as low as a few eV. Additionally, the sensitivity of annular fast electron beam transport is explored by varying the drive laser pulse parameters (i.e. energy, focal spot radius and pulse duration) and is found to be particularly sensitive to the peak laser pulse intensity. An ability to optically 'tune' the properties of an annular fast electron transport pattern may be important for applications. In the final investigation the effect that initial target temperature, and thus lattice melt, has on fast electron transport properties is demonstrated. Laser-accelerated proton beams are used to isochorically heat silicon for several tens-of-picoseconds prior to the propagation of fast electrons through the pre-heated target. This enables the influence of resistivity gradients, generated by proton-induced lattice melt, on fast electron transport properties to be explored. The experimental observation of an annular proton beam after t heat = 30 ps of proton pre-heating, which corresponds to annular electron transport within the target, is in excellent qualitative agreement with 3-D hybrid-PIC simulations of fast electron transport in a target containing an initial temperature (and thus, resistivity) gradient.
Author: Bhooshan S. Paradkar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781267169051
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 86
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In this thesis we present the dynamics of relativistic fast electrons produced in the laser-solid interactions at the intensities greater than 1018 W/cm2. In particular, the effects of pre-formed plasma in front of a solid target on the generation and transport of these fast electrons is studied. The presence of such a pre-formed plasma is ubiquitous in almost all the present short pulse high intensity laser-solid interaction experiments. First, the generation of fast electrons in the presence of pre-formed plasma of varying density scale-lengths is studied with the help of Particle In Cell (PIC) simulations. It is shown that the fast electrons energy increases with the increasing pre-formed plasma, consistent with the experimental observations. The possible mechanism of generation of such energetic electrons is studied. It is proposed that the interaction of plasma electrons with the laser in the presence of ambipolar electric field, generated due to the laser heating, can result in the electron acceleration beyond laser ponderomotive energy. The analytical and numerical studies of this heating mechanism are presented. In the second part of thesis, the influence of pre-formed plasma on the fast electrons transport is studied. Especially the physics of refluxing of these fast electrons due to the excitation of electrostatic sheath fields inside the pre-formed plasma is investigated. It is shown that this refluxing is responsible for the `annular ring shaped' copper K[alpha] x-ray emission observed in the recent high intensity laser-solid experiments.
Author: Joshua Joseph May
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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The continued development of the chirped pulse amplification technique has allowed for the development of lasers with powers of in excess of $10^{15}W$, for pulse lengths with durations of between .01 and 10 picoseconds, and which can be focused to energy densities greater than 100 giga-atmospheres. When such lasers are focused onto material targets, the possibility of creating particle beams with energy fluxes of comparable parameters arises. Such interactions have a number of theorized applications. For instance, in the Fast Ignition concept for Inertial Confinement Fusion \cite{Tabak:1994vx}, a high-intensity laser efficiently transfers its energy into an electron beam with an appropriate spectra which is then transported into a compressed target and initiate a fusion reaction. Another possible use is the so called Radiation Pressure Acceleration mechanism, in which a high-intensity, circularly polarized laser is used to create a mono-energetic ion beam which could then be used for medical imaging and treatment, among other applications. For this latter application, it is important that the laser energy is transferred to the ions and not to the electrons. However the physics of such high energy-density laser-matter interactions is highly kinetic and non-linear, and presently not fully understood. In this dissertation, we use the Particle-in-Cell code OSIRIS \cite{Fonseca:2002, Hemker:1999} to explore the generation and transport of relativistic particle beams created by high intensity lasers focused onto solid density matter at normal incidence. To explore the generation of relativistic electrons by such interactions, we use primarily one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D), and a few three-dimensional simulations (3D). We initially examine the idealized case of normal incidence of relatively short, plane-wave lasers on flat, sharp interfaces. We find that in 1D the results are highly dependent on the initial temperature of the plasma, with significant absorption into relativistic electrons only possible when the temperature is high in the direction parallel to the electric field of the laser. In multi-dimensions, absorption into relativistic electrons arises independent of the initial temperature for both fixed and mobile ions, although the absorption is higher for mobile ions. In most cases however, absorption remains at $10's$ of percent, and as such a standing wave structure from the incoming and reflected wave is setup in front of the plasma surface. The peak momentum of the accelerated electrons is found to be $2 a_0 m_e c$, where $a_0 \equiv e A_0/m_e c^2$ is the normalized vector potential of the laser in vacuum, $e$ is the electron charge, $m_e$ is the electron mass, and $c$ is the speed of light. We consider cases for which $a_0>1$. We therefore call this the $2 a_0$ acceleration process. Using particle tracking, we identify the detailed physics behind the $2 a_0$ process and find it is related to the standing wave structure of the fields. We observe that the particles which gain energy do so by interacting with the laser electric field within a quarter wavelength of the surface where it is at an anti-node (it is a node at the surface). We find that only particles with high initial momentum -- in particular high transverse momentum -- are able to navigate through the laser magnetic field as its magnitude decreases in time each half laser cycle (it is an anti-node at the surface) to penetrate a quarter wavelength into the vacuum where the laser electric field is large. For a circularly polarized laser the magnetic field amplitude never decreases at the surface, instead its direction simply rotates. This prevents electrons from leaving the plasma and they therefore cannot gain energy from the electric field. For pulses with longer durations ($\gtrsim 250fs$), or for plasmas which do not have initially sharp interfaces, we discover that in addition to the $2 a_0$ acceleration at the surface, relativistic particles are also generated in an underdense region in front of the target. These particles have energies without a sharp upper bound. Although accelerating these particles removes energy from the incoming laser, and although the surface of the plasma does not stay perfectly flat and so the standing wave structure becomes modified, we find in most cases, the $2 a_0$ acceleration mechanism occurs similarly at the surface and that it still dominates the overall absorption of the laser. To explore the generation of relativistic electrons at a solid surface and transport of the heat flux of these electrons in cold or warm dense matter, we compare OSIRIS simulations with results from an experiment performed on the OMEGA laser system at the University of Rochester. In that experiment, a thin layer of gold placed on a slab of plastic is illuminated by an intense laser. A greater than order-of-magnitude decrease in the fluence of hot electrons is observed when those electrons are transported through a plasma created from a shock-heated plastic foam, as compared to transport through cold matter (unshocked plastic foam) at somewhat higher density. Our simulations indicate two reasons for the experimental result, both related to the magnetic field. The primary effect is the generation of a collimating B-field around the electron beam in the cold plastic foam, caused by the resistivity of the plastic. We use a Monte Carlo collision algorithm implemented in OSIRIS to model the experiment. The incoming relativistic electrons generate a return current. This generates a resistive electric field which then generates a magnetic field from Faraday's law. This magnetic field collimates the forward moving relativistic electrons. The collisionality of both the plastic and the gold are likely to be greater in the experiment than the 2D simulations where we used a lower density for the gold (to make the simulations possible) which heats up more. In addition, the use of 2D simulations also causes the plastic to heat up more than expected. We compensated for this by increasing the collisionality of the plasma in the simulations and this led to better agreement. The second effect is the growth of a strong, reflecting B-field at the edge of the plastic region in the shock heated material, created by the convective transport of this field back towards the beam source due to the neutralizing return current. Both effects appear to be caused primarily by the difference is density in the two cases. Owing to its higher heat capacity, the higher density material does not heat up as much from the heat flux coming from the gold, which leads to a larger resistivity. Lastly, we explored a numerical effect which has particular relevance to these simulations, due to their high energy and plasma densities. This effect is caused by the use of macro particles (which represent many real particles) which have the correct charge to mass ratio but higher charge. Therefore, any physics of a single charge that scales as $q^2/m$ will be artificially high. Physics that involves scales smaller than the macro-particle size can be mitigated through the use of finite size particles. However, for relativistic particles the spatial scale that matters is the skin depth and the cell sizes and particle sizes are both smaller than this. This allows the wakes created by these particles to be artificially high which causes them to slow down much faster than a single electron. We studied this macro-particle stopping power theoretically and in OSIRIS simulations. We also proposed a solution in which particles are split in to smaller particles as they gain energy. We call this effect Macro Particle Stopping. Although this effect can be mitigated by using more particles, this is not always computationally efficient. We show how it can also be mitigated by using high-order particle shapes, and/or by using a particle-splitting method which reduces the charge of only the most energetic electrons.
Author: Nicholas Mark Henry Butler
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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This thesis reports on self-generated magnetic fields in ultra-intense laser interactions with dense plasma and the role that these play in the dynamics of relativistic electrons, and, subsequently, ion acceleration. This includes an investigation of resistive magnetic fields generated within solids and their influence on the transport of multi-mega-Ampere currents of energetic electrons. It also includes investigations of magnetic fields in foils expanded to near-critical density, produced by the Biermann battery and Weibel instability mechanisms. The first part of the thesis explores the transport of relativistic electrons in relatively thick solids, specifically, different allotropes of lithium, silicon and carbon. This is initially explored numerically. Simulations, performed using a three-dimensional hybrid-particle-in-cell codes are used to investigate how the material resistivity-temperature profile affects fast electron transport via self-generated magnetic fields. The degree of lattice order in the material strongly affects electrical resistivity at low temperatures. By considering resistivity-temperature profiles intermediate to those of ordered and disordered arrangements of ions, it is shown that the magnitude and shape of the resistivity-temperature profile at low temperatures strongly affects the growth of self-generated resistive magnetic fields and the onset of resistive transport instabilities. The scaling of these effects to scenarios relevant to the fast ignition scheme for inertial confinement fusion is also discussed. Following this, the influence of the low temperature electrical resistivity on the onset of the resistive filamentation instability is investigated, both experimentally and numerically, in targets consisting of layers of ordered and disordered forms of carbon. It is demonstrated that the thickness of the disordered carbon layer influences the degree of filamentation of the fast electron beam, with strong filamentation produced for thickness of the order of 60μm or greater. Furthermore, it is also shown that the position of the disordered carbon layer (within the layered target) has a minimal influence on the growth of the resistive filamentation instability. The second part of the thesis explores the influence of self-generated magnetic fields on the dynamics of electron motion in ultrathin foil targets expanding to near-critical density and undergoing relativistic induced transparency. The generation of a plasma jet, supported by a self-generated azimuthal magnetic field is explored. The parameters of the jet and its sensitivity to the experimental parameters are characterised. Following this, the onset of Weibel instability-generated magnetic fields is investigated, as diagnosed by the formation of bubble-like structures in the beam of protons accelerated from the foil. The sensitivity of the Weibel-generated magnetic fields to the decompression of the target is explored. An analysis of the scaling of the relativistic plasma jet is presented, exploring the possibility of employing these laboratory-generated structures as analogues of astrophysical relativistic plasma jet phenomena.
Author:
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Languages : en
Pages :
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Author:
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 9
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We present new results on the physics of short-pulse laser-matter interaction of kilojoule-picosecond pulses at full spatial and temporal scale, using a new approach that combines a 3D collisional electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell code with an MHD-hybrid model of high-density plasma. In the latter, collisions damp out plasma waves, and an Ohm's law with electron inertia effects neglected determines the electric field. In addition to yielding orders of magnitude in speed-up while avoiding numerical instabilities, this allows us to model the whole problem in a single unified framework: the laser-plasma interaction at sub-critical densities, energy deposition at relativistic critical densities, and fast-electron transport in solid densities. Key questions such as the multi-picosecond temporal evolution of the laser energy conversion into hot electrons, the impact of return currents on the laser-plasma interaction, and the effect of self-generated electric and magnetic fields on electron transport will be addressed. We will report applications to current experiments.
Author: J. King
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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The transport of intense relativistic beams in solid density plasma presently is actively being studied in laser laboratories around the world. The correct understanding of the transport enables further application of fast laser driven electrons to a host of interesting uses. Advanced x-ray sources, proton and ion beam generation and plasma heating in fast ignitor fusion all are owed their eventual utility to this transport. We report on measurements of relativistic transport over the whole of the transport region, via analysis of x-ray emission. Our experiments cover laser powers from Terawatt to Petawatt. Advances in transverse imaging of fluorescent k-alpha x-rays generated along the electron beam path are used to diagnose the electron emission. Additionally the spatial pattern of Bremsstrahlung x-rays provides clues into the physics of electron transport in above Alfven current limit beams. Issues regarding the electron distribution function will be discussed in light of possible electron transport anomalies. The initial experiments performed on the Nova Petawatt Laser System were those associated with determining the nature of the electrons and x-rays in this relativistic regime especially those useful for advanced radiography sources suitable for diagnostic use in dense high-Z dynamic processes or as the driver of a relativistic electron source in the Fast-Ignitor Inertial Confinement fusion concept. The development of very large arrays of thermoluminescent detectors is detailed along with their response. The characteristic pattern of x-rays and their intensity is found from detailed analysis of the TLD detector array data. Peak intensities as high as 2 Rads at 1 meter were measured with these shielded TLD arrays. An average energy yield of x-rays of 11 Joules indicates a very large fraction of 45-55% of the laser energy is absorbed into relativistic electrons. The pattern of x-ray distribution lends insight to the initial relativistic electron distribution function and subsequent transport inside solid density material. A theoretical-computational model (MPK) combining laser focal spot data with ponderomotive kinematics with Monte Carlo collisional transport is developed here, and is presented which associates the laser interaction to the observed x-ray data. There is good agreement between the MPK model and data exhibiting ponderomotive like x-rays is found. Additional agreement is had in comparison to recent electron transport experiment utilizing Cu fluorescence to map the electron flow.
Author: Flavio Zamponi
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : de
Pages : 212
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Author: Tammy Yee Wing Ma
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781124013404
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 334
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The reentrant cone approach to Fast Ignition, an advanced Inertial Confinement Fusion scheme, remains one of the most attractive because of the potential to efficiently collect and guide the laser light into the cone tip and direct energetic electrons into the high density core of the fuel. However, in the presence of a preformed plasma, the laser energy is largely absorbed before it can reach the cone tip. Full scale fast ignition laser systems are envisioned to have prepulses ranging between 100 mJ to 1 J.A few of the imperative issues facing fast ignition, then, are the conversion efficiency with which the laser light is converted to hot electrons, the subsequent transport characteristics of those electrons, and requirements for maximum allowable prepulse this may put on the laser system. This dissertation examines the laser-to-fast electron conversion efficiency scaling with prepulse for cone-guided fast ignition. Work in developing an extreme ultraviolet imager diagnostic for the temperature measurements of electron-heated targets, as well as the validation of the use of a thin wire for simultaneous determination of electron number density and electron temperature will be discussed.
Author: Philippe Leblanc
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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With the ultra intense lasers available today, it is possible to generate very hot electron beams in solid density materials. These intense laser-matter interactions result in many applications which include the generation of ultrashort secondary sources of particles and radiation such as ions, neutrons, positrons, x-rays, or even laser-driven hadron therapy. For these applications to become reality, a comprehensive understanding of laser-driven energy transport including hot electron generation through the various mechanisms of ionization, and their subsequent transport in solid density media is required. This study will focus on the characterization of electron transport effects in solid density targets using the state-of- the-art particle-in-cell code PICLS. A number of simulation results will be presented on the topics of ionization propagation in insulator glass targets, non-equilibrium ionization modeling featuring electron impact ionization, and electron beam guiding by the self-generated resistive magnetic field. An empirically derived scaling relation for the resistive magnetic in terms of the laser parameters and material properties is presented and used to derive a guiding condition. This condition may prove useful for the design of future laser-matter interaction experiments.
