High-Power Laser-Plasma Interaction

Description

The field of high-power laser-plasma interaction has grown in the last few decades, with applications ranging from laser-driven fusion and laser acceleration of charged particles to laser ablation of materials. This comprehensive text covers fundamental concepts including electromagnetics and electrostatic waves, parameter instabilities, laser driven fusion,charged particle acceleration and gamma rays. Two important techniques of laser proton interactions including target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) are discussed in detail, along with their applications in the field of medicine. An analytical framework is developed for laser beat-wave and wakefield excitation of plasma waves and subsequent acceleration of electrons. The book covers parametric oscillator model and studies the coupling of laser light with collective modes. Contents List of Figures Preface 1. Introduction 1.1 Laser Produced Plasma 1.1.1 Tunnel ionization 1.1.2 Impact ionization 1.2 Electromagnetic and Electrostatic Waves 1.3 Parametric Instabilities 1.4 Laser Driven Fusion 1.4.1 Direct-drive ICF 1.4.2 Indirect-drive ICF 1.5 Charged Particle Acceleration 1.6 Coherent X-rays 1.7 Outline of the Book References 2. Linear Waves 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Maxwell’s Equations 2.3 Kinetic Equation 2.4 Fluid Equations 2.5 Plasma Response to AC Electric Field 2.5.1 Plasma permittivity 2.5.2 Wave equation 2.6 Electromagnetic Waves 2.7 Electrostatic Waves 2.7.1 Cold fluid approximation 2.7.2 Warm fluid 2.8 Kinetic Theory of Electrostatic Waves 2.8.1 Langmuir wave 2.8.2 Ion-acoustic wave 2.9 Energy Density and Energy Flow in Dispersive Media 2.10 Diffraction Divergence 2.11 Dispersion Broadening 2.12 Wave Propagation in Inhomogeneous Plasma 2.12.1 S-polarization 2.12.2 P-polarization 2.13 Duct Propagation 2.14 Anomalous Resistivity 2.15 Discussion References 3. Resonance Absorption and Brunel Absorption 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Resonance Absorption: Heuristic Approach 3.2.1 Absorption coefficient 3.3 Laser Mode Conversion to Plasma Wave in a Warm Plasma 3.3.1 Coupled mode equations for electromagnetic and electrostatic waves 3.3.2 Mode conversion 3.4 Brunel Absorption 3.5 Discussion References 4. Plasmonics Surface Plasma Waves and Their Coupling to Lasers 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Surface Plasma Wave 4.3 Graphene Plasmons 4.3.1 Electromagnetic plasmonic mode 4.4 Surface Wave Coupling to Laser 4.5 Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering 4.5.1 Response of a nanoparticle to a laser field 4.5.2 SERS of a surface plasma wave 4.6 Discussion Appendix 4.1 Magnetoplasmons in Graphene References 5. Motion in a Strong Electromagnetic Wave: Ponderomotive Force and Self-Generated Magnetic Field 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Relativistic Electron Motion in a Plane Wave 5.2.1 Circular polarization 5.2.2 Linear polarization 5.3 Non-Relativistic Ponderomotive Force 5.3.1 Response to a pulse 5.4 Relativistic Ponderomotive Force 5.5 Nonlinear Wave Propagation in One Dimension 5.5.1 Underdense plasma 5.5.2 Overdense plasma 5.6 Ponderomotive Force and Radiation Pressure 5.7 Self-Generated Magnetic Field due to a Circularly Polarized Laser 5.8 Discussion References 6. Laser Electron Acceleration 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Laser Beat Wave Excitation of a Plasma Wave 6.3 Laser Wake-field Excitation of a Plasma Wave 6.4 Electron Acceleration 6.4.1 Acceleration energy and length 6.5 Bubble Regime Acceleration 6.5.1 Energy gain 6.6 Experiments and Simulations 6.7 Discussion References 7. Laser Acceleration of Ions 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) 7.3 TNSA by Surface Plasma Wave 7.4 Radiation Pressure Acceleration 7.4.1 Ion trapping in the self-organized double layer 7.4.2 Acceleration of the double layer 7.5 2D Effects: Rayleigh–Taylor Instability 7.6 Hole Boring and Shock Acceleration in Gaseous Targets 7.7 Discussion Appendix 7.1 Nonlinear Surface Plasma Wave References 8. Coherent Radiation Emission: Free Electron Laser 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Free Electron Laser 8.2.1 Growth rate 8.2.2 Raman regime operation 8.2.3 Gain estimate 8.2.4 Tapered wiggler FEL 8.3 Laser-driven Ion Channel X-ray Laser 8.4 Discussion References 9. Self-focusing and Filamentation 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Long Time Scale Nonlinear Permittivity 9.2.1 Collisionless plasma: ponderomotive nonlinearity 9.2.2 Collisional plasma: Ohmic nonlinearity 9.2.3 Ohmic nonlinearity with thermal conduction 9.3 Short Time Scale Nonlinear Permittivity65 9.4 Self-focusing 9.4.1 Long-term ponderomotive self-focusing 9.4.2 Thermal self-focusing 9.4.3 Self-focusing with thermal conduction 9.4.4 Relativistic self-focusing 9.5 Filamentation Instability 9.6 Discussion References 10. Parametric Instabilities 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Parametric Instability of a Pendulum 10.2.1 Parametric instability for ω0 ≈ 2ωr 10.2.2 Parametric instability for ω0 ≈ ωr 10.3 Parametric Amplifier 10.3.1 Parametric excitation in an LC circuit 10.3.2 Parametric excitation in two mode LC circuit 10.4 Parametric Instabilities in Plasmas 10.5 Dispersion Relation for the Parametric Instability with Electromagnetic Pump Wave 10.6 Resonant Scattering 10.6.1 Absolute and convective nature of parametric instability 10.6.2 Convective amplification 10.6.3 Growth of the absolute instability 10.6.4 Stimulated Raman scattering 10.6.5 Stimulated Brillouin scattering 10.7 Non-resonant Scattering: Stimulated Compton Scattering 10.7.1 Compton scattering off electrons 10.7.2 Compton scattering off ions 10.8 Four-wave Parametric Processes 10.8.1 Modulational instability 10.8.2 Filamentation instability 10.8.3 Oscillating two-stream instability 10.9 Decay Instability 10.9.1 Electromagnetic pump 10.9.2 Electrostatic pump 10.10 Two-plasmon Decay 10.11 Recent Experiments and Simulations 10.12 Discussion References 11. Parametric Instabilities in Inhomogeneous Plasma 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Convective Raman and Brillouin Instabilities 11.2.1 Stimulated Raman scattering 11.2.2 Stimulated Brillouin scattering 11.2.3 Brillouin side scattering 11.3 Absolute Raman Instability at ncr/4 and Side-scattering 11.4 Two-plasmon Decay 11.5 Decay Instability 11.5.1 Oblique pump 11.6 Oscillating Two-Stream Instability (OTSI) 11.7 Discussion References 12. Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation 12.3 Stationary Solution 12.4 Instability of an Envelope Soliton 12.5 Criterion for Collapse 12.6 Resonance Absorption, Solitons, and Chaos 12.7 Discussion References 13. Vlasov and Particle-in-Cell Simulations 13.1 Introduction 13.2 The Vlasov Equation 13.3 Properties of the Vlasov Equation 13.4 Reduction of Velocity Dimensions References 14. Strong Electromagnetic Field Effects in Plasma 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Vacuum Polarization and Pair Creation 14.3 Radiation Reaction Force 14.4 Oscillating Plasma Mirror 14.5 Conclusions References Index