The interaction of a 3 x10^19 W/cm^2 laser pulse with a metallic wire has been investigated using proton radiography. The pulse is observed to drive the propagation of a highly transient field along the wire at the speed of light. Within a temporal window of 20 ps, the current driven by this field rises to its peak magnitude 104 A before decaying to below measurable levels. Supported by particle-in-cell simulation results and simple theoretical reasoning, the transient field measured is interpreted as a chargeneutralizing disturbance propagated away from the interaction region as a result of the permanent loss of a small fraction of the laser-accelerated hot electron population to vacuum.
Laser-driven ultrafast field propagation on solid surfaces / K., Quinn; P. A., Wilson; C. A., Cecchetti; B., Ramakrishna; L., Romagnani; G., Sarri; Lancia, Livia; J., Fuchs; A., Pipahl; T., Toncian; O., Willi; R. J., Clarke; D., Neely; M., Notley; P., Gallegos; D. C., Carroll; M. N., Quinn; X. H., Yuan; P., Mckenna; T. V., Liseykina; A., Macchi; M., Borghesi. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS. - ISSN 0031-9007. - 102:19(2009), p. 194801.
Laser-driven ultrafast field propagation on solid surfaces
LANCIA, LIVIA;
2009
Abstract
The interaction of a 3 x10^19 W/cm^2 laser pulse with a metallic wire has been investigated using proton radiography. The pulse is observed to drive the propagation of a highly transient field along the wire at the speed of light. Within a temporal window of 20 ps, the current driven by this field rises to its peak magnitude 104 A before decaying to below measurable levels. Supported by particle-in-cell simulation results and simple theoretical reasoning, the transient field measured is interpreted as a chargeneutralizing disturbance propagated away from the interaction region as a result of the permanent loss of a small fraction of the laser-accelerated hot electron population to vacuum.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
