• High Power Laser Science and Engineering
  • Vol. 8, Issue 1, 010000e2 (2020)
X. H. Yang1、2、3、*, C. Ren2, H. Xu3、4, Y. Y. Ma1、3、5, and F. Q. Shao1
Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Physics, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha410073, China
  • 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York14627, USA
  • 3IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai200240, China
  • 4College of Computing Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha410073, China
  • 5State Key Laboratory of NBC Protection for Civilian, Beijing102205, China
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    DOI: 10.1017/hpl.2019.53 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    X. H. Yang, C. Ren, H. Xu, Y. Y. Ma, F. Q. Shao. Transport of ultraintense laser-driven relativistic electrons in dielectric targets[J]. High Power Laser Science and Engineering, 2020, 8(1): 010000e2 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Ultraintense laser-driven relativistic electrons provide a way of heating matter to high energy density states related to many applications. However, the transport of relativistic electrons in solid targets has not been understood well yet, especially in dielectric targets. We present the first detailed two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic electron transport in a silicon target by including the field ionization and collisional ionization processes. An ionization wave is found propagating in the insulator, with a velocity dependent on laser intensity and slower than the relativistic electron velocity. Widely spread electric fields in front of the sheath fields are observed due to the collective effect of free electrons and ions. The electric fields are much weaker than the threshold electric field of field ionization. Two-stream instability behind the ionization front arises for the cases with laser intensity greater than $5\times 10^{19}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ that produce high relativistic electron current densities.
    $$\begin{eqnarray}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}=\frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}\sqrt{2m_{e}\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}_{i}}}{eE},\end{eqnarray}$$(1)

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    $$\begin{eqnarray}E_{L}=\frac{E_{h}}{4Z}\left(\frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}_{i}}{2\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}_{h}}\right)^{2},\end{eqnarray}$$(2)

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    $$\begin{eqnarray}T_{h}^{\prime }=m_{e}c^{2}\left[\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{f}\left(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{h0}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{f}\sqrt{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{h0}^{2}-1}\right)-1\right],\end{eqnarray}$$(3)

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    $$\begin{eqnarray}\frac{E_{th}^{2}}{8\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}m_{e}c^{2}n_{h}}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{h0}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{f}\sqrt{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{h0}^{2}-1}-\sqrt{1-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{f}^{2}}.\end{eqnarray}$$(4)

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    $$\begin{eqnarray}1-\frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{ph}^{2}}{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{h0}^{3}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}-kv_{h})^{2}}-\frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{pe}^{2}}{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}+i\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}_{e})^{2}}=0,\end{eqnarray}$$(5)

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    X. H. Yang, C. Ren, H. Xu, Y. Y. Ma, F. Q. Shao. Transport of ultraintense laser-driven relativistic electrons in dielectric targets[J]. High Power Laser Science and Engineering, 2020, 8(1): 010000e2
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