553 / 2019-03-20 15:39:58

Pulsed magnetic field produced by ultraintense laser irradiating capacitor-coil target

ultraintense laser, magnetic field, capacitor-coil target

全体主题 > Fundamental Physics at Extremes

Strong, shaped magnetic field could be produced by laser irradiating capacitor-coil target. It offers a new experimental test bed to study atomic and molecular physics, astrophysics, inertial confinement fusion, etc. Nanosecond laser is usually used to produce magnetic field in this method, and the produced magnetic field has a strong correlation to the electron energy. The temperature of electrons produced by ultraintense laser (laser intensity > 1018 W/cm2) is much higher than that by nanosecond laser. Thus the magnetic field may be stronger when ultraintense laser is used. And we propose to use ultraintense laser pulse to produce the controllable magnetic field.
In this topic, strong magnetic field produced by ultraintense femtosecond laser irradiating capacitor-coil target in experiment will be introduced. The temporal evolution of the strong magnetic field was obtained by the time-gated proton radiography method. A simple model of the ultraintense laser-driven capacitor-coil target has been established, which gives a relationship between the magnetic field strength and the electron temperature produced by the laser. Recent experimental results confirm the model is useful for ultraintense laser pulse with energy around 10J. Our results indicate that magnetic fields of tens of tesla could be stably produced by most of the existing ultraintense laser facilities. It potentially opens new frontiers in basic physics which require strong magnetic field environments.