强激光与稠密等离子体作用引起的冲击波加速离子的研究

用二维PIC（Particle-in-Cell）程序模拟研究了强激光与稠密等离子体靶作用产生的无碰撞静电冲击波的结构和这种冲击波对离子的加速过程,研究发现由于冲击波前沿附近的双极电场的作用,具有一定初速度的离子能被该双极场俘获并获得加速,最终能够被加速到两倍冲击波速度.冲击波加速可以得到准单能的离子能谱,叠加在通过鞘层加速机理产生的宽度离子能谱上.还对不同激光强度和不同等离子体密度情况下形成的冲击波进行了比较.研究表明,强度相对较低的激光在高密度等离子体中可以产生以一定速度传播的静电孤波结构,后者只能加速 关键词： 强激光 稠密等离子体 无碰撞静电冲击波 离子加速     

Numerical Simulation of Autoresonant Ion Acceleration

Computational and analytic studies of the Autoresonant Acceleration proposal for collective ion acceleration are presented. Linear theory is reviewed, the electrostatic well depth is estimated nonlinearly, and an electron beam envelope equation is derived and solved. Two-dimensional numerical simulation results are given. Together, these calcualtions demonstrate unneutralized electron beam equilibrium in a diverging magnetic guide field, the behaviour of large amplitude slow cyclotron waves in the beam, and the acceleration of test ions over short distances in the wave troughs. In addition, the computer simulations point up the need for improved understanding of the linear theory of radially inhomogeneous noneutral beams and for methods of suppressing radial modulation at the diode-waveguide interface.     

Modification of semiconductor materials using laser-produced ion streams additionally accelerated in the electric fields

The laser-produced ion stream may be attractive for direct ultra-low-energy ion implantation in thin layer of semiconductor for modification of electrical and optical properties of semiconductor devices. Application of electrostatic fields for acceleration and formation of laser-generated ion stream enables to control the ion stream parameters in broad energy and current density ranges. It also permits to remove the useless laser-produced ions from the ion stream designed for implantation.For acceleration of ions produced with the use of a low fluence repetitive laser system (Nd:glass: 2 Hz, pulse duration: 3.5 ns, pulse energy:∼0.5 J, power density: 10¹⁰ W/cm²) in IPPLM the special electrostatic system has been prepared. The laser-produced ions passing through the diaphragm (a ring-shaped slit in the HV box) have been accelerated in the system of electrodes. The accelerating voltage up to 40 kV, the distance of the diaphragm from the target, the diaphragm diameter and the gap width were changed for choosing the desired parameters (namely the energy band of the implanted ions) of the ion stream. The characteristics of laser-produced Ge ion streams were determined with the use of precise ion diagnostic methods, namely: electrostatic ion energy analyser and various ion collectors. The laser-produced and post-accelerated Ge ions have been used for implantation into semiconductor materials for nanocrystal fabrication. The characteristics of implanted samples were measured using AES.     

Ion acceleration in a solitary wave by an intense picosecond laser pulse

Acceleration of ions in a solitary wave produced by shock-wave decay in a plasma slab irradiated by an intense picosecond laser pulse is studied via particle-in-cell simulation. Instead of exponential distribution as in known mechanisms of ion acceleration from the target surface, these ions accelerated forwardly form a bunch with relatively low energy spread. The bunch is shown to be a solitary wave moving over expanding plasma; its velocity can exceed the maximal velocity of ions accelerated forward from the rear side of the target.     

Sounding rocket measurements of suprathermal ion acceleration

Transverse ion acceleration has been observed at rocket altitudes between 500 and 1000 km due to the injection of 100-200-eV argon plasma, auroral electron precipitation, and the injection of electromagnetic waves. Field-aligned currents necessary to neutralize the plasma injection payloads and those naturally occurring in the aurora could be responsible for the ions observed in the first two observations. Associated with the aurora, both bulk heating and tail heating are observed, sometimes simultaneously. In this case, either different masses are accelerated and/or different mechanisms are responsible. The bulk heating is closely correlated with the aurora structure while tail heating is not so well correlated. High-time-resolution rocket ion data have revealed that the transverse acceleration process is of very short duration (~100 ms) and occurs in a very limited volume (a few hundred kilometers along B and on the order of the ion gyrodiameter across B). Such impulse acceleration events are correlated with waves near the lower hybrid resonance. Wave injections of electromagnetic waves near the lower hybrid frequency result in the transverse acceleration of ambient ions     

Nonresonant and stochastic heating of ions by low-frequency wave

The present paper addresses the nonresonant and stochastic heating of minor ions by a low-frequency Alfvén wave in the solar wind. A new and whole physical mechanism that enables the heating of ions by a low-frequency parallel propagating wave with finite amplitude in a low beta plasma. The heating process has two stages: First, ions are picked up via low-frequency wave–ion nonresonant interaction and the ion energy gain depends on the ratio of the wave electric-field energy to background magnetic-field energy. Second, when the velocity approaches the threshold value, the stochastic heating is prominent. The stochastic heating of ions sustains until the average parallel speed is close to the wave velocity.     

Steady state ion acceleration by a circularly polarized laser pulse

The steady state ion acceleration at the front of a cold solid target by a circularly polarized flat-top laser pulse is studied with one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. A model that ions are reflected by a steady laser-driven piston is used by comparing with the electrostatic shock acceleration. A stable profile with a double-flat-top structure in phase space forms after ions enter the undisturbed region of the target with a constant velocity.     

Novel features of non-linear Raman instability in a laser plasma

The electron phase space evolution in a non-relativistic and homogeneous laser plasma generated by a nanosecond laser in a near infrared region in the presence of stimulated Raman scattering is investigated by a numerical simulation. The mechanism of electron acceleration in the potential wells of the plasma wave accompanying the Raman back-scattering is analyzed in a 1D Vlasov-Maxwell model. The dominant wave modes are both the backward and the forward propagating Raman waves, each accompanied by a daughter electrostatic wave. In addition to a strong interaction of plasma electrons with the primary electrostatic wave in the case of back-scattering, a cascading is observed consisting in a secondary scattering of the primary Raman back-scattered wave. This phenomenon reduces the Raman reflectivity and causes an acceleration of electrons against the direction of the heating laser beam. Moreover, the strong trapping in the primary electrostatic wave generated by the Raman back-scattering leads due to the trapped particle instability to a significant spectral broadening of the original plasma wave and a subsequent intermittent behaviour of the scattering process. The high phase velocity electrostatic daughter wave of the forward Raman scattering cannot trap the electrons directly, but there is an indication of non-resonant quasi-modes combined of this wave and of the simultaneously existing electrostatic daughter wave accompanying the Raman back-scattering. The transform method is used for a solution of the set of partial differential equations, which consists of the Vlasov equation and of the full set of Maxwell equations in a 1D approximation. A simplified Fokker-Planck collision term is added to overcome the numerical instabilities during the simulation. The model has relevance to a long scale plasma geometry, such as occurring in the indirect drive experiments near the light entrance holes of target hohlraum.     

Plasma Processes Driven by Current Sheets and Their Relevance to the Auroral Plasma

Satellite and rocket observations have revealed a host of auroral plasma processes, including large dc perpendicular electric fields (E?) associated with electrostatic shocks, relatively weak parallel electric fields (E?) associated with double layers, upflowing ions in the form of beams and conics, downflowing and upflowing accelerated electron beams, several wave modes such as the electrostatic ion-cyclotron (EIC), lower hybrid (LH), very low frequency (VLF), extremely low frequency (ELF), and high-frequency waves and associated nonlinear phenomena. Recently, we have attempted to simulate the various processes using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell code in which the plasma is driven by current sheets of a finite thickness. Striking similarities between the observed auroral plasma processes and those seen in the simulations are found. In this paper we give a review of the plasma processes dealing with dc and ac electric fields, formation of ion beams and conics, and electron acceleration. Electrostatic shock-type electric fields (E?e) occur near the current sheet edges. Such fields arise because of the contact between the high-and low-density plasmas inside and outside the sheet, respectively. Double layers having upward electric fields form inside the sheet and they are distinguishable from the large perpendicular electric fields (E?e) only in wide sheets with thicknesses l >> ?i, the ion Larmor radius. Double layers with a reverse polarity form outside the sheet where downward currents flow. The most energetic ions are found to have pitch angles near 90°, implying a large perpendicular acceleration of the ions.     

Electrostatic cnoidal waves and soliton structures in multi‐ions plasmas

Using a reductive perturbation technique (RPT), the Korteweg‐de Vries (KdV) equation for nonlinear electrostatic waves in multi‐ion plasmas is derived with appropriate boundary conditions. Furthermore, compressive and rarefactive cnoidal wave and soliton solutions are discussed. In our model, the multi‐ion plasma consists of light dynamic warm ions, heavy cold ions, and inertialess electrons, which follows the Maxwell‐Boltzmann distribution. It is observed that in such an unmagnetized multi‐ion plasma, two characteristic electrostatic waves i.e., slow ion‐acoustic (SIA) waves and fast ion‐acoustic (FIA) waves, can propagate. The results are discussed by considering two types of multi‐ion plasmas i.e., H⁺–O⁺–e plasma and H^?–O⁺–e plasma that exist in space plasmas. It is found that for H⁺–O⁺–e plasma, the SIA cnoidal wave and soliton form both positive (compressive) and negative (rarefactive) potential pulses, which depend on the temperature and density of the light and warm ions. However, only electrostatic positive potential structures are obtained for FIA cnoidal wave and soliton in H⁺–O⁺–e plasma. In the case of H^?–O⁺–e plasma, the SIA cnoidal wave and soliton form only compressive structures, while the FIA cnoidal wave and soliton compose rarefactive structures. The effects of light ions' density and temperature on nonlinear potential structures are investigated in detail. The parametric results are also demonstrated, which are applicable to space and laboratory multi‐ion plasma situations.     

Generating monoenergetic heavy-ion bunches with laser-induced electrostatic shocks

A method for efficient laser acceleration of heavy ions by electrostatic shock is investigated using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation and analytical modeling. When a small number of heavy ions are mixed with light ions, the heavy ions can be accelerated to the same velocity as the light ions so that they gain much higher energy because of their large mass. Accordingly, a sandwich target design with a thin compound ion layer between two light-ion layers and a micro-structured target design are proposed for obtaining monoenergetic heavy-ion beams.     

Nonlinear dynamical modelling of chaotic electrostatic ion cyclotron oscillations by jerk equations

Plasma being a nonlinear and complex system, is capable of sustaining a wide spectrum of waves, oscillations and instabilities. These fluctuations interact nonlinearly amongst themselves and also with particles: electrons/ions and thus lead to nonlinear wave-wave or wave-particle interaction. In the presence of coherent waves the particles are accelerated whereas irregular oscillations can give rise to particle heating which is also called stochastic heating. Particle orbits are known to be randomized by the wave fields such that their motion can also become stochastic. For fusion to be sustained one needs a very high temperature plasma for an extended duration. It quite common to deploy external waves like electron cyclotron waves or ion cyclotron waves for plasma heating and current drive. These external waves also work only in certain regimes. Conventional plasma techniques have been able to answer several of the observations of the above processes related to heating transport etc, but nonlinear dynamics as a tool has helped in comprehending the plasma oscillations better. We have for the first time obtained a Third Order nonlinear ordinary differential equation (TONLODE) also known as jerk equation to describe the electrostatic ion cyclotron plasma oscillations in a magnetic field. The interesting feature of this equation is that it does not require an external forcing term to obtain chaotic behaviour.     

Electrostatic waves in a paired fullerene-ion plasma

Three kinds of electrostatic modes are experimentally observed to propagate along magnetic-field lines for the first time in the pair-ion plasma consisting of only positive and negative fullerene ions with an equal mass. It is found that the phase lag between the density fluctuations of positive and negative ions varies from 0 to pi depending on the frequency for ion acoustic wave and is fixed at pi for an ion plasma wave. In addition, a new mode with the phase lag about pi appears in an intermediate-frequency band between the frequency ranges of the acoustic and plasma waves.     

Nonturbulent stabilization of ion fluxes by the fan instability

Resonant interactions between energetic ion fluxes and wave packets they excite through fan instability are studied using self-consistent 3D simulations to explain the nonlinear wave–particle mechanisms at work and to estimate the energy lost by the flux and its sharing between wave emission and particle heating. The saturation of waves and the relaxation of particles are studied over long time periods. The ions are not only diffusing in the waves but are also trapped simultaneously by several potential wells of large amplitude overlapping waves. Estimates of the ion heating energy and rate are given and compared with space observations.     

Electron kinetics in collisionless shock waves

We study the kinetic model of the formation of the energy spectrum of nonthermal electrons near the front of a quasilongitudinal, supercritical, collisionless shock wave. Nonresonant interactions of the electrons and the fluctuations generated by kinetic instabilities of the ions in the transition region inside the shock front play the main role in the heating and preacceleration of electrons. We calculate the electron energy spectrum in the vicinity of the shock wave and show that the heating and preacceleration of electrons occur on a scale of the order of several hundred ion inertial lengths in the vicinity of the viscous discontinuity. Although the electron distribution function is significantly nonequilibrium near the shock front, its low-energy part can be approximated by a Maxwellian distribution. The effective electron temperature T _eff ² behind the front, obtained in this manner, increases with the Mach number of the shock wave slower than it would if it followed the Hugoniot adiabat. We determine the condition under which the electron heating is ineffective but the electrons are effectively accelerated to high energies. The high-energy asymptotic behavior of the distribution function is that of a power law, with the exponent determined by the total compression ratio of the plasma, as in the case of acceleration by the first-order Fermi mechanism. The model is used to describe the case (important for applications) of acceleration of electrons by shock waves with large total Mach numbers, with the structure of these waves modified by the nonlinear interaction of nonthermal ions and consisting of an extended prefront with a smooth variation of the macroscopic parameters and a viscous discontinuity in speed with a moderate value of the Mach number. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 846–864 (March 1999)     

Ion acceleration regimes in underdense plasmas

Acceleration of large populations of ions up to high (relativistic) energies may represent one of the most important and interesting tools that can be provided by the interaction of petawatt laser pulses with matter. In this paper, the basic mechanisms of ion acceleration by short laser pulses are studied in underdense plasmas. The ion acceleration does not originate directly from the pulse fields, but it is mediated by the electrons in the form of electrostatic fields originating from channeling, double layer formation and Coulomb explosion     

Probing strong field ionization of solids with a Thomson parabola spectrometer

Intense ultrashort laser pulses are known to generate high-density, high-temperature plasma from any substrate. Copious emission of hot electrons, from a solid substrate, results in strong electrostatic field that accelerates the ions with energies ranging from a few eV to MeV. Ion spectrometry from laser–plasma is convolved with multiple atomic systems, several charge states and a broad energy spread. Conventional mass spectrometric techniques have serious limitations to probe this ionization dynamics. We have developed an imaging ion spectrometer that measures charge/mass-resolved ion kinetic energies over the entire range. Microchannel plate (MCP) is used as the position-sensitive detector to perform online and single shot measurements. The well-resolved spectrum even for the low-energy ions, demonstrates that the spectral width is limited by the space-charge repulsion for the ions generated in the hot dense plasma.     

Stability of electrostatic ion cyclotron waves in a multi-ion plasma

We have studied the stability of the electrostatic ion cyclotron wave in a plasma consisting of isotropic hydrogen ions (H⁺) and temperature-anisotropic positively (O⁺) and negatively (O⁻) charged oxygen ions, with the electrons drifting parallel to the magnetic field. Analytical expressions have been derived for the frequency and growth/damping rate of ion cyclotron waves around the first harmonic of both hydrogen and oxygen ion gyrofrequencies. We find that the frequencies and growth/damping rates are dependent on the densities and temperatures of all species of ions. A detailed numerical study, for parameters relevant to comet Halley, shows that the growth rate is dependent on the magnitude of the frequency. The ion cyclotron waves are driven by the electron drift parallel to the magnetic field; the temperature anisotropy of the oxygen ions only slightly enhance the growth rates for small values of temperature anisotropies. A simple explanation, in terms of wave exponentiation times, is offered for the absence of electrostatic ion cyclotron waves in the multi-ion plasma of comet Halley.     

Ion pickup by intrinsic low-frequency Alfven waves with a spectrum

<正>Ion pickup by a monochromatic low-frequency Alfven wave,which propagates along the background magnetic field,has recently been investigated in a low beta plasma(Lu and Li 2007 Phys.Plasmas 14 042303).In this paper, the monochromatic Alfven wave is generalized to a spectrum of Alfven waves with random phase.It finds that the process of ion pickup can be divided into two stages.First,ions are picked up in the transverse direction,and then phase difference(randomization) between ions due to their different parallel thermal motions leads to heating of the ions.The heating is dominant in the direction perpendicular to the background magnetic field.The temperatures of the ions at the asymptotic stage do not depend on individual waves in the spectrum,but are determined by the total amplitude of the waves.The effect of the initial ion bulk flow in the parallel direction on the heating is also considered in this paper.