Energetic Electrons Driven in the Polarization Direction of an Intense Laser Beam Incident Normal to a Solid Target

Published

June 1, 2016

Author(s)

Lawrence T. Hudson, John F. Seely, Nino R. Pereira, H. Chen, G.J. Williams, R.P. Drake, C.C. Kuranz, C.A. Di Stefano, J. Park

Abstract

Experiments were performed at the LLNL Titan laser to measure the propagation direction of the energetic electrons that were generated during the interaction of the polarized laser beam with solid targets in the case of normal incidence. The energetic electrons propagated through vacuum to spectator metal wires in the polarization direction and in the perpendicular direction, and the K shell spectra from the different wire materials were recorded as functions of the distance from the laser focal spot. It was found that the fluence of the energetic electrons driven into the spectator wires in the polarization direction compared to the perpendicular direction was larger and increased with the distance from the focal spot. This indicates that energetic electrons are preferentially driven in the direction of the intense oscillating electric field of the incident laser beam in agreement with the multiphoton inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption process.

Citation

High Energy Density Physics

Volume

19

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hedp.2016.02.003

Keywords

Multiphoton inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption, laser-plasma interaction, relativistic electron propagation

Citation

Hudson, L. , Seely, J. , Pereira, N. , Chen, H. , Williams, G. , Drake, R. , Kuranz, C. , Di, C. and Park, J. (2016), Energetic Electrons Driven in the Polarization Direction of an Intense Laser Beam Incident Normal to a Solid Target, High Energy Density Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hedp.2016.02.003 (Accessed May 5, 2024)