B. C. Liu

Gamma-ray emission in near critical density plasmas at laser intensities of 1021 W/cm2

We study synchrotron radiation emission from laser interaction with near critical density (NCD) plasmas at intensities of 1021 W∕cm2 using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that the electron dynamics depend on the laser shaping process in NCD plasmas, and thus the angular distribution of the emitted photons changes as the laser pulse evolves in space and time. The final properties of the resulting synchrotron radiation, such as its overall energy, the critical photon energy, and the radiation angular distribution, are strongly affected by the laser polarization and plasma density. By using a 420 TW∕50 fs laser pulse at the optimal plasma density (∼1nc), about 108 photons/0.1% bandwidth are produced at multi-MeV photon energies, providing a route to ultraintense, femtosecond gamma ray pulses.

Directional transport of fast electrons at the front target surface irradiated by intense femtosecond laser pulses with preformed plasma

The effects of laser incidence angle on lateral fast electron transport at front target surface, when a plasma is preformed, irradiated by intense (>10(18) W/cm(2)) laser pulses, are studied by K-alpha imaging technique and electron spectrometer. A horizontally asymmetric K-alpha halo, resulting from directional lateral electron transport and energy deposition, is observed for a large incidence angle (70 degrees). Moreover, a group of MeV high energy electrons is emitted along target surface. It is believed that the deformed preplasma and the asymmetrical distribution of self-generated magnetic field, at large incidence angle, play an important role in the directional lateral electron transport.

Mass and KA Coupling of the N^*(1535)

It is argued in [1] that when the strong coupling to the K Lambda channel is considered, Breit-Wigner mass of the lightest orbital excitation of the nucleon N(1535) shifts to a lower value. The new value turned out to be smaller than the mass of the lightest radial excitation N(1440), which effectively solved the long-standing problem of conventional constituent quark models. In this Comment we show that it is not the Breit-Wigner mass of N(1535) that is decreased, but its bare mass. [1] B. C. Liu and B. S. Zou, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 042002 (2006).Using a resonance isobar model and an effective Lagrangian approach, from recent BES results on J/psi-->ppeta and psi-->pK+Lamda, we deduce the ratio between effective coupling constants of N*(1535) to KLamda and peta to be R=gN*(153)KLamda/gN*(1535)peta=1.3+/-0.3. With the previous known value of gN*(1535)peta, the obtained new value of gN*(1535)KLamda is shown to reproduce recent pp-->pK+Lamdanear-threshold cross section data as well. Taking into account this large N*KLamda coupling in the coupled channel Breit-Wigner formula for the N*(1535), its Breit-Wigner mass is found to be around 1400 MeV, much smaller than the previous value of about 1535 MeV obtained without including its coupling to KLamda. The implication on the nature of N*(1535) is discussed.

Note: A new angle-resolved proton energy spectrometer

In typical laser-driven proton acceleration experiments Thomson parabola proton spectrometers are used to measure the proton spectra with very small acceptance angle in specific directions. Stacks composed of CR-39 nuclear track detectors, imaging plates, or radiochromic films are used to measure the angular distributions of the proton beams, respectively. In this paper, a new proton spectrometer, which can measure the spectra and angular distributions simultaneously, has been designed. Proton acceleration experiments performed on the Xtreme light III laser system demonstrates that the spectrometer can give angle-resolved spectra with a large acceptance angle. This will be conductive to revealing the acceleration mechanisms, optimization, and applications of laser-driven proton beams.

Generation of High-Current Proton Beams With a Low Energy Spread by Phase-Stable Acceleration (PSA)

The acceleration of protons in the interaction of a circularly polarized laser pulse with a thin foil is investigated. For circular-polarization laser pulses, the quasi-equilibrium for electrons is established due to the light pressure and the electrostatic field built up at the interacting front of the laser pulse. The protons located within the skin depth of the laser pulse can be synchronously accelerated and bunched like phase-stable acceleration in a conventional radio-frequency accelerator, so that a high-current proton beam with a low energy spread is generated. It has been proved by 1-D particle-in-cell simulations.

Transmission Degradation of Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Opened Cone Targets

Irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses with different energies, opened cone targets behave very differently in the transmission of incident laser pulses. The targets, each with an opening angle of 71? and an opening of 5 ?m, are fabricated using standard semiconductor technology. When the incident laser energy is low and no pre-plasma is generated on the side walls of the cones, the cone target acts like an optical device to reflect the laser pulse, and 15% of the laser energy can be transmitted through the cones. In contrast, when the incident laser energy is high enough to generate pre-plasmas by the pre-pulse of the main pulse that fills the inner cone, the cone with the plasmas will block the transmission of the laser, which leads to a decrease in laser transmission compared with the low-energy case with no plasma. Simulation results using optical software in the low-energy case, and using the particle-in-cell code in the high-energy case, are primarily in agreement with the experimental results.

Micro focusing of fast electrons with opened cone targets

Using opened reentrant cone silicon targets, we have demonstrated the effect of micro focusing of fast electrons generated in intense laser-plasma interactions. When an intense femtosecond laser pulse is focused tightly onto one of the side walls of the cone, fast electron beam emitted along the side wall is observed. When a line focus spot, which is long enough to irradiate both of the side walls of the cone simultaneously, is used, two electron beams emitted along each side wall, respectively, are observed. The two beams should cross each other near the open tip of the cone, resulting in micro focusing. We use a two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell code to simulate the electron emission both in opened and closed cone targets. The simulation results of the opened cone targets are in agreement with the experimental observation while the results of the closed cone targets do not show the micro focusing effect.

Note: Diagnosing femtosecond laser-solid interactions with monochromatic Kα imager and x-ray pinhole camera

An x-ray pinhole camera and a monochromatic K(α) imager are used to measure the interactions of intense femtosecond laser pulses with Cu foil targets. The two diagnostics give different features in the spot size and the laser energy scaling, which are resulted from different physical processes. Under our experimental conditions, the K(α) emission is mainly excited by the fast electrons transporting inside the cold bulk target. In contrast, the x-ray pinhole signals are dominated by the broadband thermal x-ray emission from the hot plasma at the front target surface.

A novel online ion spectrometer for efficient detection of laser-accelerated ions

An online ion spectrometer was developed mainly based on a Thomson parabola and plastic scintillators. The sensitivity of the spectrometer to the proton has been calibrated on an electrostatic accelerator. The diagnostics has been successfully tested in laser-driven ion acceleration experiments. The calibration data obtained from the DC accelerator are applied during the deconvolution process to obtain the ion spectrum. This online spectrometer provides us an efficient diagnostics for the ion spectra in high-repetition-rate laser acceleration experiments.

Lateral propagation of fast electrons at the laser-irradiated target surfaces

Lateral propagation of fast electrons at the target surfaces irradiated by femtosecond intense laser pulses is measured by kα x-ray imaging technique when a preplasma is presented. An annular halo surrounding a bright spot is observed in the x-ray images when the scale length of the electron density is large. For an incidence angle of 70° the x-ray images show a non-symmetrical distribution peaked to the laser propagation direction. The x-ray photons in the halo are mainly excited by the fast electrons that flow in the preplasma when their paths intersect the high density regions near the target surface.