Numerical studies on intense laser-generated relativistic high-energy electrons via a thin cone target

Abstract

It is proposed that with a mini-cone target, an enormous number of high-energy collimated electrons can be produced, which may be used for fast ignition research. The effect of different laser and cone target diameters on high-energy electrons are studied with two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. When the open angle of the mini-cone is 10 degree, the number of generated hot electrons is relatively larger. With the increase of the open angle, both the energy and number of hot electrons decrease. When preplasma is added to the cone surface, the amount of hot electrons increases, while the peak energy of the hot electrons decreases. With the increase of the laser pulse duration, the number of high-energy electrons increases linearly.