Weibel instability induced by kinetic stimulated Raman scattering in unmagnetized and magnetized plasmas

Abstract

Abstract The kinetic stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is found to result in significant Weibel-generated magnetic fields via 2D particle-in-cell simulations. During the high-intensity laser pulse, the daughter electron plasma waves of SRS heat the electrons effectively and lead to anisotropy in the velocity space. This anisotropy results in the development of a quasi-static magnetic field near the laser speckle, and the growth rate has been discussed. The results show that the kinetic SRS can lead to an averaged magnetic field of more than 10 T, which can be an important magnetic field source in laser-plasma experiments. Besides, the energy of the Weibel-field undergoes an oscillatory rise with the SRS bursts and can be stable after cutting off the laser. Moreover, in the magnetized plasmas, the application of a longitudinal magnetic field enhances the SRS, but interestingly, it significantly reduces the growth rate of Weibel instability. Simulation results also indicate that a small transverse magnetic field can evidently change the motion of the hot electrons, which dramatically destroys the symmetry of the SRS and the Weibel-generated magnetic fields.