Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)

Abstract: Transport of fast electron in overdense plasmas is of key importance in high energy density physics. However, it is challenging to diagnose the fast electron transport in experiments. In this article, we study coherent transition radiation (CTR) generated by fast electrons on the back surface of the target by using 2D and 3D first-principle particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In our simulations, aluminium target of 2.7 g/cc is simulated in two different situations by using a newly developed high order implicit PIC code. Comparing realistic simulations containing collision and ionization effects, artificial simulations without taking collision and ionization effects into account significantly underestimate the energy loss of electron beam when transporting in the target, which fail to describe the complete characteristics of CTR produced by electron beam on the back surface of the target. Realistic simulations indicate the diameter of CTR increases when the thickness of the target is increased. This is attributed to synergetic energy losses of high flux fast electrons due to Ohm heatings and colliding drags, which appear quite significant even when the thickness of the solid target only differs by micrometers. Especially, when the diagnosing position is fixed, we find that the intensity distribution of the CTR is also a function of time, with the diameter increased with time. As the diameter of CTR is related to the speed of electrons passing through the back surface of the target, our finding may be used as a new tool to diagnose the electron energy spectra near the surface of solid density plasmas.

Abstract: Recently, the verification of stimulated Raman side-scattering (SRSS) in different laser inertial confinement fusion ignition schemes poses an underlying risk of SRSS on ignition. In this paper, we propose a method to use the non-uniform polarization nature of vector light to suppress SRSS and give an additional threshold condition determined by the parameter of vector light. For SRSS at 90 degrees, where the scattered electromagnetic wave travels perpendicular to the density profile, the polarization variation of the pump will change the wave vector of scattered light, thereby reducing the growth length and preventing the scattered electromagnetic wave from growing. This suppressive scheme is verified through three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Our illustrative simulation results demonstrate that for linearly polarized Gaussian light, the SRSS signal occurs in the 90-degree direction fiercely. At the same time, for the vector light, there is few SRSS signal even if the condition dramatically exceeds the threshold. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of vector light on stimulated Raman and Brillouin backscattering, and two-plasma decay.