Gigagauss magnetic field generation by bladed microtube implosion

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of ultrahigh magnetic fields—in the order of gigagauss—using a bladed microtube target whose inner surface is periodically slanted in a sawtooth-like pattern. When irradiated by ultra-intense, ultrashort laser pulses, hot electrons with MeV energies are produced at the outer surface and swiftly transported to the inner surface, initiating a rapid implosion of plasma toward the central axis. The unique blade-induced asymmetry gives rise to vortex-shaped flows of ions and electrons near the center, forming strong azimuthal loop currents that generate ultrahigh magnetic fields at the center. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, supported by a simple analytical model, elucidate the underlying physics and reveal key scaling laws governing the field strength and spatial confinement.