Hot electrons in the interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with foil targets at a moderate laser intensity

Prediction of the irradiation doses from ultrashort laser-solid interactions using different temperature scalings at moderate laser intensities

The ionising radiation created by high intensity and high repetition rate lasers can cause significant radiological hazard. Earlier defined electron temperature scalings are used for dose characterisation and prediction using Monte Carlo modelling. Dosimetric implications of different electron temperature scalings are investigated and the resulting equivalent doses are compared. It was found that scaling defined by Beget al(1997Phys. Plasmas4447-57) predicts the highest electron temperatures for given intensities, and subsequently the highest doses. The atomic number of the target, x-ray generation efficiency and interaction volume are the other parameters necessary for the dose evaluation. The set of these operational parameters should be sufficient to characterise radiological characteristics of ultrashort laser pulse based x-ray generators and evaluate radiological hazards of the laser processing facilities.

Ultrahigh-charge electron beams from laser-irradiated solid surface

Compact acceleration of a tightly collimated relativistic electron beam with high charge from a laser-plasma interaction has many unique applications. However, currently the well-known schemes, including laser wakefield acceleration from gases and vacuum laser acceleration from solids, often produce electron beams either with low charge or with large divergence angles. In this work, we report the generation of highly collimated electron beams with a divergence angle of a few degrees, nonthermal spectra peaked at the megaelectronvolt level, and extremely high charge (∼100 nC) via a powerful subpicosecond laser pulse interacting with a solid target in grazing incidence. Particle-in-cell simulations illustrate a direct laser acceleration scenario, in which the self-filamentation is triggered in a large-scale near-critical-density plasma and electron bunches are accelerated periodically and collimated by the ultraintense electromagnetic field. The energy density of such electron beams in high-Z materials reaches to [Formula: see text], making it a promising tool to drive warm or even hot dense matter states.

Spectrally peaked electron beams produced via surface guiding and acceleration in femtosecond laser-solid interactions

Highly collimated MeV electron beam guiding has been observed along the target surface following the interaction of bulk target irradiation by femtosecond laser pulses at relativistic intensities. The beam quality is shown to depend critically on the laser contrast: With a ns prepulse, the generated electron beam is well concentrated and intense, while a high laser contrast produces divergent electron beams. In the case of large preplasma scale lengths, tunable guiding and acceleration of the target surface electrons is achieved by changing the laser incident angle. By expanding the preplasma scale length to several hundred micrometers, we obtained MeV spectrum-peaked electron beams with a 100 pC per laser pulse and divergence angles of only 3°. This technique suggests a stable method of injection of elections into a variety of accelerator designs.

Observation of a fast electron beam emitted along the surface of a target irradiated by intense femtosecond laser pulses

A novel fast electron beam emitting along the surface of a target irradiated by intense laser pulses is observed. The beam is found to appear only when the plasma density scale length is small. Numerical simulations reveal that the electron beam is formed due to the confinement of the surface quasistatic electromagnetic fields. The results are of interest for potential applications of fast electron beams and deep understanding of the cone-target physics in the fast ignition related experiments.

Enhancement of energetic electrons and protons by cone guiding of laser light

Energetic electrons and protons are observed when a target consisting of a reentrant cone with a disk at the tip is irradiated by a petawatt (PW) laser at an intensity of approximately 10(19) W cm(-2). The angular distribution of the electrons and protons, dependent on the open angle of the reentrant cone, is found to differ from that in the case when a target with planar geometry is used. Two jet beams are observed, in directions parallel to the cone axis and normal to the cone-shaped wall. The number and cutoff energies of the generated protons are also related to the open angle of the cone. The efficiency of the generation of energetic electrons from the cone target is 2-3 times higher than that from a simple plane target. These results indicate a guiding of the PW laser beam in the cone geometry.

Energetic electrons emitted from ethanol droplets irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses

We investigate the angular distribution and the energy spectrum of hot electrons emitted from ethanol droplets irradiated by linearly polarized 150-fs laser pulses at an intensity of 10(16) W/cm(2). Two hot electron jets symmetrically with respect to the laser propagation direction are observed within the polarization plane. This is due to the spherical geometry of droplets in the intense laser field. The maximum energy of the hot electrons is found to be more than 600 keV. Particle-in-cell simulations suggest that the resonance absorption is the main mechanism for hot electron generation.

Spatial characteristics of Kalpha x-ray emission from relativistic femtosecond laser plasmas

The spatial structure of the Kalpha emission from Ti targets irradiated with a high intensity femtosecond laser has been studied using a two-dimensional monochromatic imaging technique. For laser intensities I<5 x 10(17) W/cm(2), the observed spatial structure of the Kalpha emission can be explained by the scattering of the hot electrons inside the solid with the help of a hybrid particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo model. By contrast, at the maximum laser intensity I=7 x 10(18) W/cm(2) the half-width of the Kalpha emission was 70 microm compared to a laser-focus half-width of 3 microm. Moreover, the main Kalpha peak was surrounded by a halo of weak Kalpha emission with a diameter of 400 microm and the Kalpha intensity at the source center did not increase with increasing laser intensity. These three features point to the existence of strong self-induced fields, which redirect the hot electrons over the target surface.

Resistive collimation of electron beams in laser-produced plasmas

Intense relativistic electron beams, produced by high-intensity short-pulse laser irradiation of a solid target, have many potential applications including fusion by fast ignition. Using a unique Fokker-Planck code, supported by analytic calculations, we show that fast electrons can be collimated into a beam even when the fast electron source is not strongly anisotropic, and we derive a condition for collimation to occur.

Spatial distribution of high-energy electron emission from water plasmas produced by femtosecond laser pulses

High energy electrons emitted by water plasmas produced by a single or a multiple laser pulse are investigated. The multipulse mode greatly enhances the generation and the temperature of hot electrons. Directional emission of high energy electrons over 25 keV is observed in two symmetric directions with respect to the laser axis and at 46 degrees from the directions of the laser electric field. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reproduce well the experimental results and indicate that the acceleration mechanism of the high energy electrons is due mainly to the resonance absorption at the edge of the spherical droplets formed by the leading pulse.