3D PIC modeling of laser acceleration of electrons from two-dimensional inhomogeneous plasma corona

Abstract

This paper presents the results of three-dimensional (3D3V) particle-in-cell modeling of the interaction of a femtosecond laser pulse with a two-dimensional inhomogeneous plasma corona of subcritical density. It was shown that in the presence of sufficiently steep temporal pulse edge the excitation of plasma waves, electron trapping and generation of collimated beams of accelerated electrons with energy of about 0.2-0.5 MeV may occur. The simulation results are compared with experiments on the generation of collimated beams of accelerated electrons from metal targets irradiated by intense femtosecond laser radiation.