Reducing current loss of laser-driven fast electron beams propagating in solid-density plasmas

Abstract

A scheme to reduce the current loss of laser-driven energetic electron beams propagating in solid-density targets is proposed. In the scheme, two intense laser pulses irradiate the solid target consisting of two materials, one enveloping the other. Because of the resistivity and density gradients at the material interface, the first pulse generates tens of megagauss robust interface magnetic fields that can considerably reduce the divergence of the electron beam generated by the second pulse. It is shown that by using a coaxial gold-aluminum target instead of a simple gold target, beam current loss can be lowered by about 30%. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.