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The accuracy with which the Thomas–Fermi (TF) model can provide electronic specific heat capacities for use in calculations relevant to fast electron transport in laser-irradiated solids is examined. It is argued that the TF model, since it neglects the quantum shell structure, is likely to be significantly inaccurate for low- and intermediate-Z materials. This argument is supported by examining the results of calculations using more sophisticated methods that account for degeneracy, the quantum shell structure, and other non-ideal corrections. It is further shown that the specific heat capacity curve generated by this more advanced treatment leads to substantial (factor of two) changes in fast electron transport simulations relative to similar modeling based upon the TF model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of a numerical study of high-intensity short-pulse laser interaction with wire targets are presented. Fast electron production and transport in solid density plasma is modeled using the implicit hybrid particle-in-cell code LSP [D. R. Welch et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 063105 (2006)]. These simulations were performed with realistic target size and laser parameters and over times much longer than the laser pulse. Nonlinear interaction processes, i.e., microchanneling and density steepening, have been observed. The spectrum of the relativistic electrons produced has a reduced slope temperature compared to that predicted by ponderomotive scaling. Preformed underdense plasma has been found to bottleneck fast electrons due to the intense magnetic fields generated near the critical surface. In a thin long wire target, the overall propagation length of the fast electrons is about 160 μm; however, surface fields guide a small fraction of electrons to longer distances. These results are in good agreement with the experiments and have demonstrated that the modeling of electron transport relevant to fast ignition can be pursued in an integrated manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transport of relativistic electrons, generated by the interaction of a high intensity (2×1020 W/cm2) laser, has been studied in a nail-like target comprised of a 20 μm diameter solid copper wire, coated with ∼2 μm of titanium, with an 80 μm diameter hemispherical termination. A ∼500 fs, ∼200 J pulse of 1.053 μm laser light produced by the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was focused to a ∼20 μm diameter spot centered on the flat face of the hemisphere. Kα fluorescence from the Cu and Ti regions was imaged together with extreme ultraviolet (XUV) emission at 68 and 256 eV. Results showed a quasiexponential decline in Kα emission along the wire over a distance of a few hundred microns from the laser focus, consistent with bulk Ohmic inhibition of the relativistic electron transport. Weaker Kα and XUV emission on a longer scale length showed limb brightening suggesting a transition to enhanced transport at the surface of the wire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate characterization of thermal electron transport and the determination of heating by suprathermal electrons in laser driven solid targets are both issues of great importance to the current experiments being performed at the National Ignition Facility, which aims to achieve thermonuclear fusion ignition using lasers. Ionization, induced by electronic heat conduction, can cause the opacity of a material to drop significantly once bound-free photoionization is no longer energetically possible. We show that this drop in opacity enables measurements of the transmission of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) laser pulses at 13.9 nm to act as a signature of the heating of thin (50 nm) iron layers with a 50-nm thick parylene-N (CH) overlay irradiated by 35-fs pulses at irradiance 3 x 10-16 Wcm-2. Comparing EUV transmission measurements at different times after irradiation to fluid code simulations shows that the target is instantaneously heated by hot electrons (with approximately 10% of the laser energy), followed by thermal conduction with a flux limiter of ≈0.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]