A two-component model for the electron distribution function in ahigh-current pseudospark or back-lighted thyratron

Temperature, energy, and densities of two electron distribution function components, including an isotropic bulk part and an anisotropic beam, are analyzed for a hydrogen pseudospark and/or back-lighted thyratron switch plasma with a peak electron density of 1-3×10¹⁵ cm^-3 and peak current density of ≈10⁴ A/cm². Estimates of a very small cathode-fall width during the conduction phase and high electric field strengths lead to the injection of an electron beam with energies ⩾100 eV and density of 10¹³-10¹⁴ cm^-3 into a Maxwellian bulk plasma. Collisional and radiative processes of monoenergetic beam electrons, bulk plasma electrons and ions, and atomic hydrogen are modeled by a set of rate equations, and line intensity ratios are compared with measurements. Under these high-current conditions, for an initial density n_H2=10¹⁶ cm^-3 and electron temperature of 0.8-1 eV, the estimated beam density is ≈10¹³ -10¹⁴ cm^-3. These results suggest the possibility of producing in a simple way a very high-density electron beam     

Plasma-based accelerator diagnostics based upon longitudinalinterferometry with ultrashort optical pulses

All-optical ultrafast time-resolved plasma diagnostics of plasma-based accelerators (PBA's) are described, with emphasis on the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA). Specifically, the diagnostic techniques involve replacing the trailing particle bunch in the LWFA with a trailing photon bunch: a weak ultrashort laser pulse. Since this photon pulse is derived directly from the intense pump pulse, practical difficulties such as synchronization and dephasing are eliminated. The interaction of the photon bunch with the plasma wake is essentially a simple time-domain shift in optical phase, which can produce both “DC” phase shifts and frequency blue/red-shifting of the probe pulse spectrum. These phase/frequency shifts are recorded in frequency domain interferograms, which are formally equivalent to time-domain holograms. Experimental results of longitudinal plasma density profiling are presented in which plasma density oscillations (Langmuir waves) in the wake of an intense (I_peak~3×10 ¹⁷ W/cm²) laser pulse (~100 fs) were measured with ultrafast time resolution. Phase shifts consistent with large amplitude (~80%) density oscillations at the electron plasma frequency were observed in a fully tunnel-ionized He plasma, corresponding to longitudinal electric fields of ~10 GV/m. Strong radial ponderomotive forces enhance the density oscillations. Finally, proposed single-shot schemes for simultaneous transverse and longitudinal profiling are discussed     

等离子体密度对激光拉曼放大机理的影响

等离子体中的背向拉曼散射机理可以用来产生超短超强的激光脉冲. 本文采用粒子模拟方法模拟研究了等离子体密度对激光拉曼放大过程的影响. 研究发现, 过低的等离子体密度会导致等离子体波提前波破而降低能量转换效率; 而过高的等离子体密度又会导致其他不稳定性的快速增长, 限制作用距离和输出能量. 因此, 拉曼放大机理的最佳等离子体密度应处于等离子体波破的密度阈值附近, 可以获得最高的能量转换效率和能量输出. 另外, 空间频谱分析显示放大激光的强度饱和主要来自于自相位调制不稳定性的发展. 利用10¹³ W·cm^-2的抽运激光脉冲, 模拟证实拉曼放大机理可有效地将种子激光的强度从10¹³ W·cm^-2 放大到10¹⁷ W·cm^-2, 脉宽压缩到40 fs, 且能量转换效率达到58%.     

温稠密钛电导率计算

温稠密物质是惯性约束核聚变、重离子聚变、Z箍缩动作过程中物质发展和存在的重要阶段. 其热力学性质和辐射输运参数在聚变实验和内爆驱动力学模拟过程中有至关重要的作用. 本文通过建立非理想Saha方程, 结合线性混合规则的理论方法模拟了温稠密钛从10^-5-10 g·cm^-3, 10⁴ K到3×10⁴ K区间的粒子组分分布和电导率随温度密度的变化, 其中粒子组分分布由非理想Saha方程求解得到. 线性混合规则模型计算温稠密钛的电导率时考虑了包括电子、原子和离子之间的多种相互作用. 钛的电导率的计算结果与已有的爆炸丝实验数据相符. 通过电导率随温度密度变化趋势判断, 钛在整个温度区间, 密度0.56 g·cm^-3时发生非金属相到金属相相变. 对于简并系数和耦合系数的计算分析, 钛等离子体在整个温度和密度区间逐渐从弱耦合、非简并状态过渡到强耦合部分简并态.     

Electron density and temperature contour plots from alaser-produced plasma using collective ultraviolet Thomson scattering

Temporally integrated ultraviolet collective Thomson scattering measurements were performed with frequency-quadrupled Nd:YAG laser radiation on an underdense long-scalelength aluminum plasma (n_c ~10²¹ cm^-3, Z≈7, T_e≈T_i ⩾50 eV, L⩾100 μm). The plasma was preformed by an Nd:YAG fundamental beam (1.06 μm) with focusable intensities of 10 ¹¹ W/cm². Color images of two-dimensional (2-D) spatially resolved (30 μm) electron density and electron temperature were obtained. These are the shortest wavelength Thomson scattering measurements on a plasma to date     

Modeling single-frequency laser-plasma acceleration usingparticle-in-cell simulations: the physics of beam breakup

We investigate electron acceleration from space-charge waves driven by single-frequency lasers using a fully explicit particle-in-cell (PIC) model. The two dimensional (2-D) simulations model ~100 fs pulses at densities near n=4×10¹⁹ cm^-3 for 1-μm lasers. The pulses are found to break up due to a combination of longitudinal and transverse bunching of the laser intensity via Raman forward scattering type instabilities. The ponderomotive force of these intensity modulations generates large amplitude plasma waves. Large numbers of self-trapped electrons and multiple Raman forward scattering satellites are observed. The relevance of these simulations to experiments is discussed     

Shadow photography of laser-driven shock waves in air

The interaction of a pulsed TE-CO₂-laser (10.6 μm wavelength, 7 μs pulse length, 0.7 J pulse energy, 10⁷ W/cm² power density, 100 kW mean power) with metals in air was investigated. Laser-supported absorption phenomena and material ablation processes are compared to those of conventional pulsed TEA-CO ₂-lasers. Of interest were the time-dependent plasma formation and the evolution of the shock waves. To achieve a time resolution better than 10 ns, a pulsed dye laser was used as a light source for the shadow photography     

Ultrabright γ-ray emission from the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a near-critical-density plasma

An efficient scheme for generating ultrabright γ-rays from the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a near-critical-density plasma is studied by using the two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation including quantum electrodynamic effects. We investigate the effects of target shape on γ-ray generation efficiency using three configurations of the solid foils attached behind the near-critical-density plasma: a flat foil without a channel (target 1), a flat foil with a channel (target 2), and a convex foil with a channel (target 3). When an intense laser propagates in a near-critical-density plasma, a large number of electrons are trapped and accelerated to GeV energy, and emit γ-rays via nonlinear betatron oscillation in the first stage. In the second stage, the accelerated electrons collide with the laser pulse reflected from the foil and emit high-energy, high-density γ-rays via nonlinear Compton scattering. The simulation results show that compared with the other two targets, target 3 affords better focusing of the laser field and electrons, which decreases the divergence angle of γ-photons. Consequently, denser and brighter γ-rays are emitted when target 3 is used. Specifically, a dense γ-ray pulse with a peak brightness of 4.6×10²⁶ photons/s/mm²/mrad²/0.1%BW (at 100 MeV) and 1.8×10²³ photons/s/mm²/mrad²/0.1%BW (at 2 GeV) are obtained at a laser intensity of 8.5×10²² W/cm² when the plasma density is equal to the critical plasma density n_c. In addition, for target 3, the effects of plasma channel length, foil curvature radius, laser polarization, and laser intensity on the γ-ray emission are discussed, and optimal values based on a series of simulations are proposed.     

Plasma guiding and wakefield generation for second-generationexperiments

A design study has been carried out for a second-generation experiment on laser guiding and wakefield excitation in a channel. From simple scaling laws for the wakefield amplitude, dephasing length, the relativistic group velocity factor γ_g, and energy gain with and without guiding, we find that the parameter regime for a compact single stage GeV accelerator favors laser systems producing short pulses (10 fs⩽τ⩽100 fs), each containing an energy on the order of 100 mJ to a few J's. Taking the dephasing length as the maximum acceleration distance, plasma channels with lengths of 1-10 cm and densities of 10¹⁷-10¹⁹ cm^-3 need to be produced; whereas the design study has been primarily concerned with diffraction and channel guiding, dephasing and depletion limits, and linear wakefield theory, aspects of the effect of the plasma wave on the evolution of the laser pulse are discussed. We find that transverse and longitudinal pulse distortions could indeed affect the generated plasma wave phase velocity and amplitude, and hence may limit the achievable energy gains over the one-dimensional (1-D) linear estimates. Some issues for experiments on prototype small accelerators (100 MeV-1 GeV, cm scale) are also discussed     

宽带啁啾镜对的设计和制备

设计了中心波长800 nm带宽约500 nm的啁啾镜对, 在550–1050 nm波长范围内提供约-60 fs²群延迟色散(group delay dispersion, GDD), 通过啁啾镜对的形式使GDD振荡波纹由单个啁啾镜的±100 fs²减小到±20 fs². 采用双射频离子束溅射方法进行制备, 用白光干涉仪进行色散性能测试, 从测试结果可以看出, 制备的啁啾镜的反射率、GDD性能和设计值符合得比较好. 制备出的550–1050 nm超宽带啁啾镜对在钛宝石激光器腔外进行色散补偿, 原输入脉冲由24–27 fs压缩到12 fs, 这是国产超宽带啁啾镜对的首次应用. 关键词： 超快激光 啁啾镜对 群延迟色散 色散补偿     

Distribution of charged lunar dust in the south polar region of the moon

Lunar dust is one of the most threatening problems confronting the return of human beings to the moon. In this work we studied the spatial distribution behavior of charged lunar dust in the solar wind plasma environment in the south polar region of the moon and considered the influence of a mini-crater using Spacecraft Plasma Interactions Software. The distribution of dust and plasma at low solar altitude angles of 20° and 0° was studied, and the spatial density of lunar dust was ~10^10.4 m^-3 and ~10^11.5 m^-3, respectively. This is because a higher surface potential will result in transportation of small dust particles and photoelectrons can also neutralize positively charged lunar dust. The dust density in the plasma void region created by a mini-crater with a 5 m high wall was studied. We obtained a quasi-neutral electric environment in the plasma void region of the mini-crater, and the dust density was about a magnitude lower than that in other regions. The dust risk to a spacesuit is much lower on the nightside than on the dayside, but there is severe charged lunar dust transport in the region between light and shade, which is dominated by the difference in surface and plasma potential caused by photoelectrons.     

超短超强激光脉冲辐照超薄碳膜电离状态研究

为了进一步理解极端条件下物质的电离特性, 特别是超短超强激光脉冲辐照超薄靶时等离子体的形成与分布, 本文以超薄碳膜为例, 细致研究了超短超强激光脉冲辐照下原子的离化过程. 分析和比较了强激光场直接作用电离和靶内静电场电离等两种场致电离形式, 在碰撞电离可以忽略的情况下, 发现更多的电离份额是来自靶内静电场的电离方式. 研究了激光脉冲强度对电离的影响, 发现激光脉冲强度越强, 电离速度越快, 产生的高价态离子所占比例也越高.当激光强度为1×10²⁰ W/cm²时, 尽管该强度高于电离生成C⁺⁶所需要的激光强度阈值, 但该激光脉冲并不能将整个靶电离成C⁺⁶离子, 对此本文进行了详细的分析. 在研究激光脉冲宽度的影响时, 发现激光脉宽越小, 电离速度越快, 但越小的激光脉冲电离获得的高价态离子越少.     

Enhanced laser-induced plasma channels in air

Plasma is a significant medium in high-energy density physics since it can hardly be damaged. For some applications such as plasma based backward Raman amplification(BRA), uniform high-density and large-scale plasma channels are required. In the previous experiment, the plasma transverse diameter and density are 50–200 μm and 1–2 × 10~(19)cm~(-3),here we enhance them to 0.8 mm and 8 × 10~(19)cm~(-3), respectively. Moreover, the gradient plasma is investigated in our experiment. A proper plasma gradient can be obtained with suitable pulse energy and delay. The experimental results are useful for plasma physics and nonlinear optics.     

相对论圆偏振激光与固体靶作用产生高次谐波

超短超强激光与固体靶表面等离子体相互作用可以通过高次谐波的方式产生从极紫外到软X射线波段的相干辐射,获得飞秒甚至阿秒量级的超短脉冲,可用于观测原子或分子中的电子运动等超快动力学过程.本文实验研究了相对论圆偏振飞秒激光与固体靶相互作用的高次谐波产生过程,实验结果表明,在较大入射角下,圆偏振激光也可以有效地产生高次谐波辐射.通过预脉冲控制靶表面的预等离子体密度标长,发现高次谐波的产生效率随密度标长的增加而单调下降.进一步通过二维粒子模拟程序,分析了激光的偏振以及预等离子体密度标长对高次谐波产生的影响,很好地解释了实验观测结果.     

A cold thermionically emitting dusty air plasma formed by radiativeheating of graphite particulates

Formation of an atmospheric pressure dusty air plasma is explored experimentally in this paper. The plasma is created by seeding an air flow with graphite particles and irradiating the particulates with a focused CO₂ laser beam. The graphite particles are, thus, heated to thermionically emitting temperatures, and average particle temperatures and average particle number densities are measured. The presence of charges is inferred both from these measured quantities using a simple theoretical transient model, and experimentally by applying a dc bias across the irradiated region. It is found that an electron density of ~6.7 × 10⁵ cm^-3 (6.7 × 10¹¹ m^-3) can be produced at steady state in the presence of O₂. This value can be increased to 3.6 × 10⁷ cm^-3 (3.6 × 10¹³ m ^-1) in the ideal case where an electron attachment to O₂ is suppressed and where a lower work function particulate is used     

Photo-ionized lithium source for plasma accelerator applications

A photo-ionized lithium source is developed for plasma acceleration applications. A homogeneous column of lithium neutral vapor with a density of 2×10^15-3 is confined by helium gas in a heat-pipe oven. A UV laser pulse ionizes the vapor. In this device, the length of the neutral vapor and plasma column is 25 cm. The plasma density was measured by laser interferometry in the visible on the lithium neutrals and by CO₂ laser interferometry on the plasma electrons. The maximum measured plasma density was 2.9×10 ¹⁴ cm^-3, limited by the available UV fluence (≈83 mJ/cm²), corresponding to a 15% ionization fraction. After ionization, the plasma density decreases by a factor of two in about 12 μs. These results show that such a plasma source is scaleable to lengths of the order of 1 m and should satisfy all the requirements for demonstrating the acceleration of electrons by 1 GeV in a 1-GeV/m amplitude plasma wake     

Extending plasma accelerators: guiding with capillary tubes

In order to extend plasma accelerators, the laser beam has to be guided inside gas or plasma over a distance of the order of the dephasing length, which is typically much larger than the diffraction length z_R of the laser. A capillary tube can be used as a waveguide for high-intensity laser pulses over distances well in excess of z_R. Experimental demonstration of monomode guiding over 100 z_R of 10¹⁶ W/cm² pulses has been obtained in evacuated capillary tubes (45-70-μm inner diameter). A drop of transmission has been observed when the intensity of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is high enough to ionize the capillary tube entrance. Propagation in helium gas-filled (10-40 mbar) capillary tubes has been studied at intensities up to 10¹⁶ W/cm²; a plasma column with on-axis density of the order of 10¹⁷ cm^-3 has been created on a length of the order of 4 cm. The use of a capillary tube for an extended accelerator is discussed for the ease of linear, resonant excitation of plasma waves by laser wakefield     

Simulation study of a capacitively coupled plasma torch array

Using capacitively coupled electrical discharges, an array of three plasma torches powered by a single 60-Hz source are lit up simultaneously to produce a dense plasma in the open air. The discharge voltage and current of each torch is measured for three cases of one to three torches being lit up in the array. The results determine the ν-i characteristic of the discharge which indicates that the torch is operating in a diffuse are mode. The torch array is modeled by an equivalent circuit for simulating its operation. The simulation results of the discharge voltage and current of a torch are shown to agree well with those from the experimental measurements for the three cases. The lump circuit model is then used to carry out numerical simulations of the discharge for a broad parameter space of plasma species. By fitting the simulation results, a function giving the parametric dependence of the consumed average power density 〈P〉 on the normalized average electron density 〈n_e〉 maintained in the plasma is determined to be 〈P〉 48 〈n_e〉 ^1.9α_^0.4(W/cm³), where 〈n_e〉 is normalized to 10¹³cm^-3 and α_, the electron-ion recombination coefficient normalized to 10^-7 cm³·s^-1, is used as a variable parameter in the simulation     

Electron-hole plasma generation and evolution in semiconductors

We discuss various physical problems related to dense electron-hole (e-h) plasmas in silicon-like semiconductors such as: the e-h plasma energy in the quantum and classical limits including the actual band structure; the dielectric constant using the appropriate plasma frequency mass and the variation of the plasma relaxation time due to e-h collisions; the plasma generation including its nonlinear aspect when the e-h density passes the plasma frequency density of the pump beam; the e-h plasma evolution due to Auger recombination and impact ionization as well as the e-h plasma hydrodynamics; finally, we will discuss also the possibility of a very fascinating melting at T=0.     

Experimental study of a plasma-filled backward wave oscillator

Experimental studies of a plasma-filled X-band backward-wave oscillator (BWO) are presented. Depending on the background gas pressure, microwave frequency upshifts of up to 1 GHz appeared along with an enhancement by a factor of 7 in the total microwave power emission. The bandwidth of the microwave emission increased from ⩽0.5 GHz to 2 GHz when the BWO was working at the RF power enhancement pressure region. The RF power enhancement appeared over a much wider pressure range in a high beam current case (10-100 mT for 3 kA) than in a lower beam case (80-115 mT for 1.6 kA). The plasma-filled BWO has higher power output than the vacuum BWO over a broader region of magnetic guide field strength. Trivelpiece-Gould modes (T-G modes) are observed with frequencies up to the background plasma frequency in a plasma-filled BWO. Mode competition between the T-G modes and the X-band Tm₀₁ mode prevailed when the background plasma density was below 6×10¹¹ cm^-3 . At a critical background plasma density of ≃8×10¹¹ cm^-3 power enhancement appeared in both X-band and the T-G modes. Power enhancement of the S-band in this mode collaboration region reached up to 8 dB. Electric fields measured by the Stark-effect method were as high as 34 kV/cm while the BWO power level was 80 MW. These electric fields lasted throughout the high-power microwave pulse