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.     

Formation of narrow low-energy high-intensity electron beams

The process of formation of high-density low-energy (5–10 keV) pulsed electron beams of small diameter (on the order of a few millimeters) in a gun of the “channel-spark” type is studied. It is shown that beams with a rate of rise of the current exceeding 10¹¹ A/s and an amplitude exceeding the Alfvén current by a factor of 1.5–2.0 can be obtained in experiments with intense preionisation of the transport channel combined with a pulsed supply of the accelerating voltage to the cathode. In the optimal pressure mode, the current density at a distance of 2–3 cm from the gun outlet is 40–25 kA/cm², which will ensure ablation of most solid targets.     

相对论电子束在离子通道中的聚焦与输运

 基于单粒子理论,描述了相对论电子束在离子通道中的聚焦输运过程,讨论了离子-电子密度比、相对论因子、束加速电压和入射电流等系统参数对电子束的聚焦半径、纵向聚焦位置的影响。研究表明,离子通道对电子束具有强烈的聚焦效应,束流在离子通道内的传输是类周期波动传输,随传输距离增加,聚焦点处的半径逐渐增加,束流的波动幅度逐渐减小。选择适当的系统参数,可调节束聚焦点位置和聚焦点半径的大小,实现电子束的长距传输并且减少电子束的耗散。     

相对论电子束在离子通道中的聚焦与输运

基于单粒子理论,描述了相对论电子束在离子通道中的聚焦输运过程,讨论了离子-电子密度比、相对论因子、束加速电压和入射电流等系统参数对电子束的聚焦半径、纵向聚焦位置的影响。研究表明,离子通道对电子束具有强烈的聚焦效应,束流在离子通道内的传输是类周期波动传输,随传输距离增加,聚焦点处的半径逐渐增加,束流的波动幅度逐渐减小。选择适当的系统参数,可调节束聚焦点位置和聚焦点半径的大小,实现电子束的长距传输并且减少电子束的耗散。     

Dynamic control of laser-produced proton beams

The emission characteristics of intense laser driven protons are controlled using ultrastrong (of the order of 10(9) V/m) electrostatic fields varying on a few ps time scale. The field structures are achieved by exploiting the high potential of the target (reaching multi-MV during the laser interaction). Suitably shaped targets result in a reduction in the proton beam divergence, and hence an increase in proton flux while preserving the high beam quality. The peak focusing power and its temporal variation are shown to depend on the target characteristics, allowing for the collimation of the inherently highly divergent beam and the design of achromatic electrostatic lenses.     

Control over the space-time structure of electron beams by high-intensity femtosecond laser radiation

The space-velocity distribution of electrons propagating in vacuum can be deformed by the ponderomotive potential produced by high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses, which makes it possible to subsequently separate such electrons from the initial beam. It is shown that optical modification of electron beams with kinetic energies on the order of 100 eV by femtosecond laser radiation with an intensity from 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁸ W/cm² makes it possible to form electron beams with a duration on the order of 50–100 fs. Examples of optical control over the shape of electron beams, based on deflection, reflection, focusing, and splitting of electron beams, are considered.     

Towards cooling of high-intensity ion beams

Buffer gas beam coolers may become excellent beam preparation devices for high-resolution mass separation. The small beam emittance provided makes efficient isobar resolution a realistic goal. In order to fulfill the needs of future facilities providing high-intensity beams of rare isotopes, it is desirable to increase the beam intensity limit of such devices from typically several tens of nanoamperes to microamperes. This requires the usage of high-voltage radiofrequencies in a low-pressure gas environment. A buffer gas beam cooler, dedicated to this purpose, is under development at the NSCL. The study of voltage breakdowns under such conditions and the design of an electrode system minimizing them is mandatory.      

Laser-energy transfer and enhancement of plasma waves and electron beams by interfering high-intensity laser pulses

The effects of interference due to crossed laser beams were studied experimentally in the high-intensity regime. Two ultrashort (400 fs), high-intensity (4 x 10(17) and 1.6 x 10(18) W/cm(2)) and 1 microm wavelength laser pulses were crossed in a plasma of density 4 x 10(19) cm(3). Energy was observed to be transferred from the higher-power to the lower-power pulse, increasing the amplitude of the plasma wave propagating in the direction of the latter. This results in increased electron self-trapping and plasma-wave acceleration gradient, which led to an increased number of hot electrons (by 300%) and hot-electron temperature (by 70%) and a decreased electron-beam divergence angle (by 45%), as compared with single-pulse illumination. Simulations reveal that increased stochastic heating of electrons may have also contributed to the electron-beam enhancement.     

Gaussian representation of high-intensity focused ultrasound beams

A method for fast numerical simulation of high-intensity focused ultrasound beams is derived. The method is based on the frequency-domain representation of the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov (KZK) equation, and assumes for each harmonic a Gaussian transverse pressure distribution at all distances from the transducer face. The beamwidths of the harmonics are constrained to vary inversely with the square root of the harmonic number, and as such this method may be viewed as an extension of a quasilinear approximation. The technique is capable of determining pressure or intensity fields of moderately nonlinear high-intensity focused ultrasound beams in water or biological tissue, usually requiring less than a minute of computer time on a modern workstation. Moreover, this method is particularly well suited to high-gain simulations since, unlike traditional finite-difference methods, it is not subject to resolution limitations in the transverse direction. Results are shown to be in reasonable agreement with numerical solutions of the full KZK equation in both tissue and water for moderately nonlinear beams.     

非高斯光束的传输

提出一种能处理非高斯非轴对称光束传输的张量方法,引入三个表征任意分布光束的特征张量,运用非对称光学系统的惠更斯衍射积分公式导出了它们的变换规律.讨论了任意光束的质量因子.作为一个实例,分析了高阶厄米-高斯光束通过柱面透镜的变换.     

Propagation of flat-topped beams

The propagation of flat-topped beams passing through paraxial ABCD optical system is investigated based on the propagation formulas of Gaussian beam. The focal shift of focused coherent flat-topped beam is also studied in detail. Analytical expressions of the M² factor and the far-field intensity distribution for flat-topped beams are derived on the basis of second-order moments.     

激光加速电子束放射照相的模拟研究

激光加速产生高能量电子束具有源尺寸小、准单能、脉宽窄等特征.通过蒙特卡罗程序模拟研究了高能电子束的放射照相.模拟了200 MeV准直电子束照射台阶靶、厚铁靶,11 MeV点源电子束照射惯性约束聚变模型靶,以及70 MeV点源电子束在激光等离子体磁场下的偏转.结果表明激光加速电子束在探伤厚材料内部、确认薄材料界面、测量电磁场等诊断中具有高时空分辨、灵敏等能力.     

Single shot phase contrast imaging using laser-produced Betatron x-ray beams

Development of x-ray phase contrast imaging applications with a laboratory scale source have been limited by the long exposure time needed to obtain one image. We demonstrate, using the Betatron x-ray radiation produced when electrons are accelerated and wiggled in the laser-wakefield cavity, that a high-quality phase contrast image of a complex object (here, a bee), located in air, can be obtained with a single laser shot. The Betatron x-ray source used in this proof of principle experiment has a source diameter of 1.7 μm and produces a synchrotron spectrum with critical energy E(c)=12.3±2.5 keV and 10? photons per shot in the whole spectrum.     

厄米-余弦-高斯光束的传输特性

 从广义惠更斯-菲涅耳衍射积分出发对厄米-余弦-高斯光束的传输特性作了研究，给出了厄米-余弦-高斯光束通过近轴ABCD光学系统的解析传输公式，以厄米-余弦-高斯光束通过自由空间和薄透镜系统为例做了数值计算和分析，结果表明厄米-余弦-高斯光束在自由空间传输时不能保持其形状不变。厄米-双曲余弦-高斯光束、余弦-高斯光束、厄米-高斯光束的传输公式可作为厄米-余弦-高斯光束的特例得出。     

Observation of the decay dynamics and instabilities of megagauss field structures in laser-produced plasmas

Monoenergetic proton radiography was used to make the first measurements of the long-time-scale dynamics and evolution of megagauss laser-plasma-generated magnetic field structures. While a 1-ns 10(14) W/cm2 laser beam is on, the field structure expands in tandem with a hemispherical plasma bubble, maintaining a rigorous 2D cylindrical symmetry. With the laser off, the bubble continues to expand as the field decays; however, the outer field structure becomes distinctly asymmetric, indicating instability. Similarly, localized asymmetry growth in the bubble interior indicates another kind of instability. 2D LASNEX hydrosimulations qualitatively match the cylindrically averaged post-laser plasma evolution but even then it underpredicts the field dissipation rate and of course completely misses the 3D asymmetry growth.     

Flat electron beams

Electrons from a source in a solenoidal magnetic field emerge from that field with a characteristic angular momentum. This behavior can be used to produce a flat ribbon-like electron beam with zero thickness (to first order). We show that this can be done using a quadrupole triplet and provide analytical expressions for the focal length of each lens. Solutions can be found over a wide range of practical values of the parameters.