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γ-ray flash generation in near-critical-density target irradiated by four symmetrical colliding laser pulses is numerically investigated. With peak intensities about 10^{23} W/cm^{2}, the laser pulses boost electron energy through direct laser acceleration, while pushing them inward with the ponderomotive force. After backscattering with counterpropagating laser, the accelerated electron is trapped in the electromagnetic standing waves or the ponderomotive potential well created by the coherent overlapping of the laser pulses, and emits γ-ray photons in a multiple-laser-scattering regime, where electrons act as a medium transferring energy from the laser to γ rays in the ponderomotive potential valley.

Energetic electron acceleration processes in a plasma hollow tube irradiated by an ultraintense laser pulse are investigated. It is found that the longitudinal component of the laser field is much enhanced when a linear polarized Gaussian laser pulse propagates through the plasma tube. This longitudinal field is of $\ensuremath{\pi}/2$ phase shift relative to the transverse electric field and has a $\ensuremath{\pi}$ phase interval between its upper and lower parts. The electrons in the plasma tube are first pulled out by the transverse electric field and then trapped by the longitudinal electric field. The trapped electrons can further be accelerated to higher energy in the presence of the longitudinal electric field. This acceleration mechanism is clearly illustrated by both particle-in-cell simulations and single particle modelings.

Thermophysical properties of hydrogen, helium, and hydrogen-helium mixtures have been investigated in the warm dense matter regime at electron number densities ranging from $6.02\times10^{29}\sim2.41\times10^{30}$/m$^{3}$ and temperatures from 4000 to 20000 K via quantum molecular dynamics simulations. We focus on the dynamical properties such as the equation of states, diffusion coefficients, and viscosity. Mixing rules (density matching, pressure matching, and binary ionic mixing rules) have been validated by checking composite properties of pure species against that of the fully interacting mixture derived from QMD simulations. These mixing rules reproduce pressures within 10% accuracy, while it is 75% and 50% for the diffusion and viscosity, respectively. Binary ionic mixing rule moves the results into better agreement. Predictions from one component plasma model are also provided and discussed., 6.5 pages, 5 figures

Plasma defocusing and higher-order Kerr effects on multiple filamentation and pattern formation of ultrashort laser pulse propagation in air are investigated. Linear analyses and numerical results show that these two saturable nonlinear effects can destroy the coherent evolution of the laser field, and small-scale spatial turbulent structures rapidly appear. For the two-dimensional case, numerical simulations show that blow-up-like solutions, spatial chaos, and pseudorecurrence can appear at higher laser intensities if only plasma defocusing is included. These complex patterns result from the stochastic evolution of the higher- or shorter-wavelength modes of the laser light spectrum. From the viewpoint of nonlinear dynamics, filamentation can be attributed to the modulational instability of these spatial incoherent localized structures. Furthermore, filament patterns associated with multiphoton ionization of the air molecules with and without higher-order Kerr effects are compared.

We have calculated the equation of states, the viscosity and self-diffusion coefficients, and electronic transport coefficients of beryllium in the warm dense regime for densities from 4.0 to 6.0 g/cm$^{3}$ and temperatures from 1.0 to 10.0 eV by using quantum molecular dynamics simulations. The principal Hugoniot is accordant with underground nuclear explosive and high power laser experimental results up to $\sim$ 20 Mbar. The calculated viscosity and self-diffusion coefficients are compared with the one-component plasma model, using effective charges given by the average-atom model. The Stokes-Einstein relationship, which presents the relationship between the viscosity and self-diffusion coefficients, is found to hold fairly well in the strong coupling regime. The Lorenz number, which is the ratio between thermal and electrical conductivities, is computed via Kubo-Greenwood formula and compared to the well-known Wiedemann-Franz law in the warm dense region., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures

An analytical fluid model is proposed for artificially collimating fast electron beams produced in the interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with specially engineered low-density-core-high-density-cladding structure targets. Since this theory clearly predicts the characteristics of the spontaneously generated magnetic field and its dependence on the plasma parameters of the targets transporting fast electrons, it is of substantial relevance to the target design for fast ignition. The theory also reveals that the rapid changing of the flow velocity of the background electrons in a transverse direction (perpendicular to the flow velocity) caused by the density jump dominates the generation of a spontaneous interface magnetic field for these kinds of targets. It is found that the spontaneously generated magnetic field reaches as high as 100 MG, which is large enough to collimate fast electron transport in overdense plasmas. This theory is also supported by numerical simulations performed using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell code. It is found that the simulation results agree well with the theoretical analysis.

Using conventional methods, a laser pulse can be focused down to around 6-8 microm, but further reduction of the spot size has proven to be difficult. Here it is shown by particle-in-cell simulation that with a hollow cone an intense laser pulse can be reduced to a tiny, highly localized, spot of around 1 microm radius, accompanied by much enhanced light intensity. The pulse shaping and focusing effect is due to a nonlinear laser-plasma interaction on the inner surface of the cone. When a thin foil is attached to the tip of the cone, the cone-focused light pulse compresses and accelerates the ions in its path and can punch through the thin target, creating highly localized energetic ion bunches of high density.

A solution in the form of X-wave patterns of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with a harmonic background inhomogeneity is obtained. The pattern can be attributed to the effects of the harmonic potential and the boundary configuration and size. By varying the harmonic of the background potential, the competition among three types of wave patterns: spiral, X, and target, is investigated by following the evolution of the Fourier modes.

The acceleration mechanism of electrons in combined strong axial magnetic fields and circularly polarized laser pulse fields is investigated by solving the dynamical equations for relativistic electrons both numerically and analytically. We find that the electron acceleration depends not only on the laser intensity, but also on the ratio between electron Larmor frequency and laser frequency. As the ratio approaches unity, a clear resonance peak is observed, corresponding to the laser-magnetic resonance acceleration. Away from the resonance regime, the strong magnetic fields still affect the electron acceleration dramatically. We derive an approximate analytical solution of the relativistic electron energy in adiabatic limit, which provides a full understanding of this phenomenon. Application of our theory to fast ignition of inertial confinement fusion is discussed.

Recent experiment [S.G. Glendinning et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 3318 (1997)] showed that the measured growth rate of laser ablative Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability with preheating is about 50% of the classic value and is reduced by about 18% compared with the simulated value obtained with the computer code LASNEX. By changing the temperature variation of the electron thermal conductivity at low temperatures, the density profile from the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook approximation is recovered in the simulation, and the simulated RT growth rate is in good agreement with the experimental value from Glendinning et al. The preheated density profile on ablative RT stablization is studied numerically. A change of the Atwood number in the preheating case also leads to RT stabilization. The RT growth formula $\ensuremath{\gamma}=\sqrt{Akg/(1+AkL)}\ensuremath{-}{2kV}_{a}$ agrees well with experiment and simulation, and is appropriate for the preheating case.