Theoretical Investigation of Relativistic Electron Transport in Intense Laser-Matter Interaction

在啁啾脉冲放大技术的推动下，用强激光在物质中产生高能量密度的技术在过去的十年里取得了巨大的进步。这项技术可以用台式激光器产生极强的飞秒激光脉冲。当激光脉冲与物质相互作用时，光电场使物质电离并加速电子到近光速，产生强电流。研究相对论电子在稠密等离子体中的输运对于基础研究以及天体物理、惯性约束聚变、射线照相和粒子加速器离子源等应用都具有重要意义。由于涉及的物理过程本身的复杂性，数值分析--即计算机模拟--在理解物理和支持实验方面发挥着重要作用。在本提议的背景下，目的是(I)通过最先进的计算机模拟从理论上研究致密等离子体中的相对论电子输运。一维和多维粒子在细胞中的模型被修改为包括场和碰撞电离以及二元碰撞，(Ii)研究和帮助开发进一步的数值工具，用于描述密集等离子体中的快速电子传输，以及(Iii)实际支持正在进行的大型激光设备的实验。

The generation of high energy-density in matter with intense laserbeams has made tremendous progress in the last decade,stimulated by the development of chirped-pulse-amplification.This technique allows to create femtosecond optical laser pulses ofextreme intensities I\lambda^2 > 10^17 - 10^21 W/cm2 micrometerby table-top lasers. When such laser pulses interact with matter, thelight electric field ionizes the material and accelerates electrons tonear-light velocity, generating enourmous currents.The investigation of relativistic electron transport through denseplasma is highly relevant for basic research as well as forapplications like astrophysics, inertial confinement fusion,radiography and ion sources for particle accelerators.Due to the inherent complexity of the physical processes involved,numerical analysis -- i.e. computer simulations -- play a central rolein understanding the physics and in the support of experiments.The aims within the context of this proposal are to (i) studyrelativistic electron transport in dense plasmatheoretically by means of state-of-the-art computer simulations,ie. one- and multidimensional particle-in-cell models that aremodified to include field and collisional ionization, as well asbinary collisions, (ii) study and help to develop further numericaltools for the description of fast electron transport indense plasma, and (iii) to actually support ongoing experiments atlarge-scale laser facilities.