Effect of magnetic field to improve energy deposition of relativistic electrons

ORAL

Abstract

A systematic study of relativistic electrons' propagation and energy deposition in a pre-assembled cylindrical plasma under controlled conditions of density and temperature with and without external magnetic field, has been carried out. Understanding the role of magnetic field in relativistic electrons' transport is important for several applications including fast ignition inertial confinement fusion. The OMEGA-60 laser with 36 beams (0.3 TW/beam, 1.5 ns square pulse) was used to compress a CH cylinder filled with Cl-doped CH foam to reach density of about 8 g/cm$^{\mathrm{3}}$ with an initial density of 0.1 g/cm$^{\mathrm{3}}$. OMEGA EP (1 kJ, 10 ps) produced a relativistic electron beam for transport studies. Modeling shows that both the rapidly growing self-generated and compressed external magnetic fields significantly improved the energy coupling to the compressed plasmas, in agreement with experiment.

–

Authors

  • Farhat Beg

    University of California, San Diego, UCSD, UC San Diego

  • D. Kawahito

    Center for Energy Research, UCSD, University of California, San Diego, UCSD, UC San Diego

  • M. Dozières

    University of California, San Diego, UC San Diego

  • P. Forestier-Colleoni

    UC San Diego

  • Christopher McGuffey

    UC San Diego, University of California, San Diego, UCSD

  • Stephanie Hansen

    Sandia National Lab, Sandia National Laboratories

  • Mathieu Bailly-Grandvaux

    University of California, San Diego, UC San Diego, UCSD

  • K. Bhutwala

    UC San Diego

  • Mingsheng Wei

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, LLE

  • Christine Krauland

    General Atomics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Pierre Gourdain

    University of Rochester

  • J. R. Davies

    University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, NY 14623, USA

  • K. Matsuo

    University of Osaka

  • S. Fujioka

    University of Osaka

  • Michael Campbell

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, U. of Rochester, LLE, University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester - LLE, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics

  • J. Peebles

    University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics

  • J. Santos

    Université de Bordeaux

  • Dimitri Batani

    Université de Bordeaux, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications

  • S. Zhang

    UC San Diego