ABSTRACT
The interaction of a multipicosecond, kilojoule laser pulse with a surface of a solid target has been shown to produce electrons with energies far beyond the free-electron ponderomotive limit m_{e}c^{2}a_{0}^{2}/2. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that an increase in the pulse duration from 1 to 10 ps leads to the formation of a low-density shelf (about 10% of the critical density). The shelf extends over 100 µm toward the vacuum side, with a nonstationary potential barrier forming in that area. Electrons reflected from the barrier gain superponderomotive energy from the potential. Some electrons experience an even greater energy gain due to ponderomotive acceleration when their "dephasing rate" R=γ-p_{x}/m_{e}c drops well below unity, thus increasing acceleration by a factor of 1/R. Both 1D and 2D simulations indicate that these mechanisms are responsible for the generation of extensive thermal distributions with T_{e}>10 MeV and a high-energy cutoff of hundreds of MeV.
ABSTRACT
Energy loss in the transport of a beam of relativistic electrons in warm dense aluminum is measured in the regime of ultrahigh electron beam current density over 2×10^{11} A/cm^{2} (time averaged). The samples are heated by shock compression. Comparing to undriven cold solid targets, the roles of the different initial resistivity and of the transient resistivity (upon target heating during electron transport) are directly observable in the experimental data, and are reproduced by a comprehensive set of simulations describing the hydrodynamics of the shock compression and electron beam generation and transport. We measured a 19% increase in electron resistive energy loss in warm dense compared to cold solid samples of identical areal mass.
