A single long electron bunch detect electromagnetic field evolution in laser plasma

Abstract

Laser fusion research needs much more high-time-resolved diagnostic technologies to study the dynamic process in laser plasma. We develop a special method and setup a device to measure the electromagnetic field in the plasma by using a single electron bunch. The measurement covers the whole-time window of the plasma process driven by a 3.6 ns laser pulse. An electron source can generate a single electron bunch with 0–100 keV energy and 10ns bunch length. A laser pulse with 1 J energy and 532 nm wavelength irradiates on the edge of a silver target, the target nearby the irradiated spot is ionized into plasma. At the beginning of plasma generation, the head of the electron beam begins to pass through the plasma. Electromagnetic field in plasma pushes the electrons transversely. A high voltage pulse at a good time is used to deflect the electrons linearly in the transverse direction to avoid overlapping of the different electrons on the scintillator downstream. By analyzing the deflection distances of the different electrons in this single bunch, we succesfully achieve an average electronic field along the trajectory in the plasma in the whole plasma process. The maximum value of this electronic field is <inline-formula> <tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$ 7.74\times {10}^{5}\;\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{m} $\end{document}</tex-math> <alternatives> <graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20211374_M2.jpg"/> <graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="1-20211374_M2.png"/> </alternatives> </inline-formula>.