Speaker
Arianna Formenti
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/P5.2010.pdf
Ultra-intense laser interaction with nanostructured near-critical plasmas
A.Formenti1 , L.Fedeli 1 , L.Cialfi1 , A.Pazzaglia1 , M.Passoni1
1 Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Ultra-intense laser interaction with near-critical
plasmas is characterized by a rich physics and is ac-
tively investigated for a wide range of applications,
from laser-driven secondary sources[1, 2] to the ex-
ploration of astrophysically relevant scenarios[3].
An appealing solution to produce near-critical plas-
mas with finely controlled properties is to irradiate
nanostructured low-density materials[4]. Due the
combined extremely fast dynamics and high tempo-
ral contrast of modern-day ultra-intense lasers, the
nanostructure can survive long enough to affect the
Figure 1: Nanostructured foam irradiated at
interaction. a0 = 5. Electron density is shown in greyscale,
In this contribution we present a thorough investi- while EM field intensity is shown in col-
gation of laser-interaction with near-critical nanos- orscale.
tructured plasmas, via 2D[5] and 3D[6] Particle-In-
Cell (PIC) simulations[7]. For the plasma we consider both simplified models (i.e. a collection
of nanospheres) and realistic 3D nanostructured morphologies (i.e. fractal-like foam aggregates,
ordered and random arrays of nanowires). We compare their behavior with that of a homoge-
neous near-critical plasma. We find that several important observables are influenced by the
nanostructure and so a realistic description of its morphology is essential to properly under-
stand the physical processes at play in this scenario. These results suggest possible paths to
guide the design of future experiments involving near-critical plasmas.
References
[1] M. Passoni et al., Physical Review Accelerators and Beams 19, 061301 (2016)
[2] D.J. Stark et al., Physical Review Letters 115, 025002 (2015)
[3] A.Grassi, M.Grech, F.Amiranoff, A.Macchi, C.Riconda, Physical Review E 96:033204 (2017)
[4] A.Zani, D.Dellasega, V.Russo, M.Passoni. Carbon 56, 358-365 (2012)
[5] L.Fedeli, A.Formenti, C.E.Bottani, M.Passoni, The European Physical Journal D 71.8, 202 (2017)
[6] L.Fedeli, A.Formenti, L.Cialfi, A.Pazzaglia, M.Passoni, Scientific Reports, In press (2018)
[7] A. Sgattoni et al. PRACE white paper. arXiv:1503.02464 (2015)
