Beam instabilities in laser-plasma interaction : Relevance to preferential ion heating

We propose a new mechanism for anomalous ion heating in ultraintense laser plasmas. This mechanism is based on the excitation of an electron two-stream instability that is driven by the fast electron beam that resonantly decays into ion-acoustic waves. These low frequency waves are then strongly dam...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2005-06, Vol.94 (24), p.245002.1-245002.4, Article 245002
Main Authors: MENDONCA, J. T, NORREYS, P, BINGHAM, R, DAVIES, J. R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CARBON
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
DEUTERIUM
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
ENERGY LOSSES
Exact sciences and technology
EXCITATION
GOLD
ION ACOUSTIC WAVES
ION COLLISIONS
Laser-plasma interactions
LASERS
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
Physics
Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges
Physics of plasmas and electric discharges
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA PRODUCTION
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
TWO-STREAM INSTABILITY
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Summary:We propose a new mechanism for anomalous ion heating in ultraintense laser plasmas. This mechanism is based on the excitation of an electron two-stream instability that is driven by the fast electron beam that resonantly decays into ion-acoustic waves. These low frequency waves are then strongly damped by the ion collisions in the dense plasma. The model gives a simple explanation for the preferential heating of the bulk ion population observed in recent laser experiments in the petawatt regime. In particular, this work provides an explanation for the different energy loss in the Au and CD plasmas, in cone-guided fast ignition experiments.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.245002