We provide the first report on the harmonics generated by an intense femtosecond vector beam that is normally incident on a solid target. By using 2D particle-in-cell(PIC) codes, we observe the third and the fifth harmonic signals with the same vector structure as the driving beam, and obtain an attosecond vector beam pulse train. We also show that the conversion efficiencies of the third and the fifth harmonics reach their maxima for a plasma density of four times the critical density due to the plasma resonating with the driving force. This method provides a new means of generating intense extreme ultraviolet(XUV) vector beams via ultra-intense laser-driven harmonics.
With the advent of ultrashort high intensity laser pulses,laser absorption during the laser–solid interactions has received significant attention over the last two decades since it is related to a variety of applications of high intensity lasers,including the hot electron production for fast ignition of fusion targets,table-top bright X-ray and gamma-ray sources,ion acceleration,compact neutron sources,and generally the creation of high energy density matters.Normally,some absorption mechanisms found for nanosecond long laser pulses also appear for ultrashort laser pulses.The peculiar aspects with ultrashort laser pulses are that their absorption depends significantly on the preplasma condition and the initial target structures.Meanwhile,relativistic nonlinearity and ponderomotive force associated with the laser pulses lead to new mechanisms or phenomena,which are usually not found with nanosecond long pulses.In this paper,we present an overview of the recent progress on the major absorption mechanisms in intense laser–solid interactions,where emphasis is paid to our related theory and simulation studies.
An all-optical scheme for high-density pair plasmas generation is proposed by two laser pulses colliding in a cylinder channel. Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that, when the first laser pulse propagates in the cylinder,electrons are extracted out of the cylinder inner wall and accelerated to high energies. These energetic electrons later run into the second counter-propagating laser pulse, radiating a large amount of high-energy gamma photons via the Compton back-scattering process. The emitted gamma photons then collide with the second laser pulse to initiate the Breit–Wheeler process for pairs production. Due to the strong self-generated fields in the cylinder, positrons are confined in the channel to form dense pair plasmas. Totally, the maximum density of pair plasmas can be 4.60 × 10^(27)m^(-3), for lasers with an intensity of 4×10^(22)W·cm^(-2). Both the positron yield and density are tunable by changing the cylinder radius and the laser parameters. The generated dense pair plasmas can further facilitate investigations related to astrophysics and particle physics.
本文构建了多松弛时间离散玻尔兹曼模型,并使用该模型模拟爆轰现象。相对于我们之前的一个模型[Xu A., Lin C., Zhang G., Li Y., Phys. Rev. E 91 (2015) 043306],本模型在模拟有化学反应或无化学反应流体系统时的计算效率更高。这是因为前者使用了24个离散速度,而本模型只使用16个。在模拟部分高马赫物理系统时,本模型表现出更高的数值稳定性。使用该模型,本文分四种情况模拟了爆轰波激发的Richtmyer-Meshkov不稳定性问题。当爆轰波由反应物传向另一种较轻的不反应的物质时,由于突然失去能量补充,温度急剧下降,在物质界附近将会出现一层高密区域。
