Plasma devices to guide and collimate a high density of MeV electrons
Plasma devices to guide and collimate a high density of MeV electrons
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DOI：
10.1038/nature03133
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发表时间：
2004-12-23
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Yabuuchi, T
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kodama, R;Sentoku, Y;Yabuuchi, T
超高强度激光(1)的发展促进了实验室天体物理学(2)和高密度核科学(3)的新研究，包括激光聚变（4-7）。这种研究依赖于大量高能带电粒子的高效产生。例如，激光与物质在10(15)W功率水平下的相互作用可以产生MeV电子（8-10）脉冲，电流密度可达10(12)A cm（-2）。然而，在距离源数厘米的地方，这些粒子束(5)的发散通常会将电流密度降低到10(6)a cm（-2）的几倍。能够引导如此强烈的脉冲高能光束的装置的发明将彻底改变它们的应用。在这里，我们报告了由瞬态等离子体组成的高导电性器件，该器件将激光-物质相互作用中产生的MeV电子的能量密度提高了一个数量级以上。在空心锥靶上产生的等离子体纤维引导和准直电子，其方式类似于光纤维和准直器对光的控制。这种等离子体装置有望应用于高能量密度粒子，并将引发带电粒子光学的发展。
The development of ultra-intense lasers(1) has facilitated new studies in laboratory astrophysics(2) and high-density nuclear science(3), including laser fusion(4-7). Such research relies on the efficient generation of enormous numbers of high-energy charged particles. For example, laser - matter interactions at petawatt (10(15) W) power levels can create pulses of MeV electrons(8-10) with current densities as large as 10(12) A cm(-2). However, the divergence of these particle beams(5) usually reduces the current density to a few times 10(6) A cm(-2) at distances of the order of centimetres from the source. The invention of devices that can direct such intense, pulsed energetic beams will revolutionize their applications. Here we report high-conductivity devices consisting of transient plasmas that increase the energy density of MeV electrons generated in laser - matter interactions by more than one order of magnitude. A plasma fibre created on a hollow-cone target guides and collimates electrons in a manner akin to the control of light by an optical fibre and collimator. Such plasma devices hold promise for applications using high energy-density particles and should trigger growth in charged particle optics.