Generation of intense quasi-electrostatic fields due to deposition of particles accelerated by petawatt-range laser-matter interactions
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We demonstrate here for the first time that charge emitted by laser-target interactions at petawatt peak-powers can be efficiently deposited on a capacitor-collector structure far away from the target and lead to the rapid (tens of nanoseconds) generation of large quasi-static electric fields over wide (tens-of-centimeters scale-length) regions, with intensities much higher than common ElectroMagnetic Pulses (EMPs) generated by the same experiment in the same position. A good agreement was obtained between measurements from a classical field-probe and calculations based on particle-flux measurements from a Thomson spectrometer. Proof-of-principle particle-in-cell simulations reproduced the measurements of field evolution in time, giving a useful insight into the charging process, generation and distribution of fields. The understanding of this charging phenomenon and of the related intense fields, which can reach the MV/m order and in specific configurations might also exceed it, is very important for present and future facilities studying laser-plasma-acceleration and inertial-confinement-fusion, but also for application to the conditioning of accelerated charged-particles, the generation of intense electric and magnetic fields and many other multidisciplinary high-power laser-driven processes.
Date Issued
2019-06-12
Date Acceptance
2019-05-23
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2019, 9
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
9
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s). Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Imperial College Trust
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31189924
PII: 10.1038/s41598-019-44937-2
Grant Number
EP/K022415/1
ST/P000835/1
ST/S001956/1
EP/H500227/1
PHPL_P47646
N/A
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
8551