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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,081 records · Page 60
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Energy enhancement of proton acceleration in combinational radiation pressure and bubble by optimizing plasma density

The combinational laser radiation pressure and plasma bubble fields to accelerate protons are researched through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. The dephasing length of the accelerated protons bunch in the front of the bubble and the density gradient effect of background plasma on the accelerating phase are analyzed in detail theoretically. The radiation damping effect on the accelerated protons energy is also considered. And it is demonstrated by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that the protons bunch energy can be increased by using the background plasma with negative density gradient. However, radiation damping makes the maximal energy of the accelerated protons a little reduction.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Hybrid proton acceleration scheme using relativistic intense laser light

Ion acceleration phenomena at relativistic intense laser interaction with thin foil targets are studied to find an efficient laser-target interaction concept at the conditions, where neither the ponderomotive pressure of the laser light nor the hot electron pressure is negligible. Particle in cell simulations and the analytical model are allowing to predict optimum laser-target parameters and suggesting a significant increase of proton energy if a hybrid proton acceleration scheme is used. In the proposed scenario, the laser polarisation is changed during the acceleration process: First with circularly polarised laser light the target is accelerated as a whole by the ponderamotive pressure, and then with linearly polarised laser light the electrons are heated which additionally increases the accelerating field. The calculations are in good agreement with experimental findings.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

High contrast ion acceleration at intensities exceeding 10{sup 21} Wcm{sup −2}

Ion acceleration from short pulse laser interactions at intensities of 2×10{sup 21}Wcm{sup −2} was studied experimentally under a wide variety of parameters, including laser contrast, incidence angle, and target thickness. Trends in maximum proton energy were observed, as well as evidence of improvement in the acceleration gradients by using dual plasma mirrors over traditional pulse cleaning techniques. Extremely high efficiency acceleration gradients were produced, accelerating both the contaminant layer and high charge state ions from the bulk of the target. Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations enabled the study of the influence of scale length on submicron targets, where hydrodynamic expansion affects the rear surface as well as the front. Experimental evidence of larger electric fields for sharp density plasmas is observed in simulation results as well for such targets, where target ions are accelerated without the need for contaminant removal.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Laser ion acceleration by using the dynamic motion of a target

Proton acceleration by using a 620 TW, 18 J laser pulse of peak intensity of 5×10{sup 21} W/cm{sup 2} irradiating a disk target is examined using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that protons are accelerated efficiently to high energy for a “light” material in the first layer of a double-layer target, because a strongly inhomogeneous expansion of the first layer occurs by a Coulomb explosion within such a material. Moreover, a large movement of the first layer for the accelerated protons is produced by radiation-pressure-dominant acceleration. A time-varying electric potential produced by this expanding and moving ion cloud accelerates protons effectively. In addition, using the best material for the target, one can generate a proton beam with an energy of 200 MeV and an energy spread of 2%.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

The beat in laser-accelerated ion beams

Regular modulation in the ion velocity distribution becomes detectable if intense femtosecond laser pulses with very high temporal contrast are used for target normal sheath acceleration of ions. Analytical and numerical analysis of the experimental observation associates the modulation with the half-cycle of the driving laser field period. In processes like ion acceleration, the collective and laser-frequency determined electron dynamics creates strong fields in plasma to accelerate the ions. Even the oscillatory motion of electrons and its influence on the acceleration field can dominate over smoothing effects in plasma if a high temporal contrast of the driving laser pulse is given. Acceleration parameters can be directly concluded out of the experimentally observed modulation period in ion velocity spectra. The appearance of the phenomenon at a temporal contrast of ten orders between the intensity of the pulse peak and the spontaneous amplified emission background as well as remaining intensity wings at picosecond time-scale might trigger further parameter studies with even higher contrast.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Stable long range proton acceleration driven by intense laser pulse with underdense plasmas

Proton acceleration is investigated by 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in an interaction of an ultra intense laser with a near-critical-density plasma. It was found that multi acceleration mechanisms contribute together to a 1.67 GeV collimated proton beam generation. The W-BOA (breakout afterburner based on electrons accelerated by a wakefield) acceleration mechanism plays an important role for the proton energy enhancement in the area far from the target. The stable and continuous acceleration maintains for a long distance and period at least several pico-seconds. Furthermore, the energy scalings are also discussed about the target density and the laser intensity.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

On the mechanism of acceleration behavior of plasma bullet

Two special experiments are designed to study the mechanism of the acceleration behavior of a plasma bullet when it exits a nozzle. First, a T-shape device is used to simulate the air diffusion when a plasma plume exits the nozzle. It is found that adding just 1% of N{sub 2}, O{sub 2}, or air to the main working gas He results in the acceleration of the plasma bullet. Second, materials of different permittivity are added to the left part of the outside of the tube. The experimental results show that the plasma bullet accelerates at the moment when it enters into the right part of the tube where there is no extra material on the outside of the tube. These two experiments confirm that the acceleration behavior of the plasma bullet when it exits the nozzle is due to the air diffusion, hence Penning ionization, and the permittivity change when the bullet exits the nozzle, for example, from a tube with high permittivity to air with low permittivity. Besides, electric field measurements show that the electric field in the bullet head increases when the plasma bullet accelerates. This confirms the electric field driven nature of the plasma bullet propagation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Role of stochastic heating in wakefield acceleration when optical injection is used

The dynamics of an electron in two counterpropagating waves is investigated. Conditions for stochastic acceleration are derived. The possibility of stochastic heating is confirmed when two waves interact with low density plasma by performing PIC (Particle In Cell) code simulations. It is shown that stochastic heating can play an important role in laser wakefield acceleration. When considering low density plasma interacting with a high intensity wave perturbed by a low intensity counterpropagating wave, stochastic heating can provide electrons with the right momentum for trapping in the wakefield. The influence of stochastic acceleration on the trapping of electrons is compared to the one of the beatwave force which is responsible for cold injection. To do so, several polarizations for the colliding pulses are considered. For some value of the plasma density and pulse duration, a transition from an injection due to stochastic acceleration to a cold injection dominated regime—regarding the trapped charge—has been observed from 2D and 3D PIC code simulations. This transition is ruled by the ratio of the interaction length of the pulses to the longitudinal size of the bubble. When the interaction length of the laser pulses reaches the radius of the accelerating cavity stochastic heating becomes dominant, and might be necessary to get electrons trapped into the wakefield, when wakefield inhibition grows with plasma density.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

The mechanisms of electron heating and acceleration during magnetic reconnection

The heating of electrons in collisionless magnetic reconnection is explored in particle-in-cell simulations with non-zero guide fields so that electrons remain magnetized. In this regime, electric fields parallel to B accelerate particles directly, while those perpendicular to B do so through gradient-B and curvature drifts. The curvature drift drives parallel heating through Fermi reflection, while the gradient B drift changes the perpendicular energy through betatron acceleration. We present simulations in which we evaluate each of these mechanisms in space and time in order to quantify their role in electron heating. For a case with a small guide field (20% of the magnitude of the reconnecting component), the curvature drift is the dominant source of electron heating. However, for a larger guide field (equal to the magnitude of the reconnecting component) electron acceleration by the curvature drift is comparable to that of the parallel electric field. In both cases, the heating by the gradient B drift is negligible in magnitude. It produces net cooling because the conservation of the magnetic moment and the drop of B during reconnection produce a decrease in the perpendicular electron energy. Heating by the curvature drift dominates in the outflow exhausts where bent field lines expand to relax their tension and is therefore distributed over a large area. In contrast, the parallel electric field is localized near X-lines. This suggests that acceleration by parallel electric fields may play a smaller role in large systems where the X-line occupies a vanishing fraction of the system. The curvature drift and the parallel electric field dominate the dynamics and drive parallel heating. A consequence is that the electron energy spectrum becomes extremely anisotropic at late time, which has important implications for quantifying the limits of electron acceleration due to synchrotron emission. An upper limit on electron energy gain that is substantially higher than earlier estimates is obtained by balancing reconnection drive with radiative loss.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Quasi-steady accelerator operation on the ZAP flow Z-pinch

The ZaP Flow Z-Pinch Experiment utilizes sheared flows to stabilize an otherwise unstable equilibrium. The sheared flows are maintained by streaming high velocity plasma parallel to the pinch. Previous operations of the machine show depletion of the accelerator’s neutral gas supply late in the pulse leading to pinch instability. The current distribution in the accelerator exhibits characteristic modes during this operation, which is corroborated by interferometric signals. The decrease in density precipitates a loss of plasma quiescence in the pinch, which occurs on a timescale related to the flow velocity from the plasma source. To abate the depletion, the geometry of the accelerator is altered to increase the neutral gas supply. The design creates a standing deflagration front in the accelerator that persists for the pulse duration. The new operating mode is characterized by the same diagnostics as the previous mode. The lessons learned in the accelerator operations have been applied to the design of a new experiment, ZaP-HD. This work was supported by grants from the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Backward-propagating MeV electrons in ultra-intense laser interactions: Standing wave acceleration and coupling to the reflected laser pulse

Laser-accelerated electron beams have been created at a kHz repetition rate from the reflection of intense (∼10{sup 18 }W/cm{sup 2}), ∼40 fs laser pulses focused on a continuous water-jet in an experiment at the Air Force Research Laboratory. This paper investigates Particle-in-Cell simulations of the laser-target interaction to identify the physical mechanisms of electron acceleration in this experiment. We find that the standing-wave pattern created by the overlap of the incident and reflected laser is particularly important because this standing wave can “inject” electrons into the reflected laser pulse where the electrons are further accelerated. We identify two regimes of standing wave acceleration: a highly relativistic case (a{sub 0} ≥ 1), and a moderately relativistic case (a{sub 0} ∼ 0.5) which operates over a larger fraction of the laser period. In previous studies, other groups have investigated the highly relativistic case for its usefulness in launching electrons in the forward direction. We extend this by investigating electron acceleration in the specular (back reflection) direction and over a wide range of intensities (10{sup 17}–10{sup 19 }W cm{sup −2})

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Beam dynamics simulations of post low energy beam transport section in RAON heavy ion accelerator

RAON (Rare isotope Accelerator Of Newness) heavy ion accelerator of the rare isotope science project in Daejeon, Korea, has been designed to accelerate multiple-charge-state beams to be used for various science programs. In the RAON accelerator, the rare isotope beams which are generated by an isotope separation on-line system with a wide range of nuclei and charges will be transported through the post Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) section to the Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ). In order to transport many kinds of rare isotope beams stably to the RFQ, the post LEBT should be devised to satisfy the requirement of the RFQ at the end of post LEBT, simultaneously with the twiss parameters small. We will present the recent lattice design of the post LEBT in the RAON accelerator and the results of the beam dynamics simulations from it. In addition, the error analysis and correction in the post LEBT will be also described.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Acceleration of on-axis and ring-shaped electron beams in wakefields driven by Laguerre-Gaussian pulses

The acceleration of electron beams with multiple transverse structures in wakefields driven by Laguerre-Gaussian pulses has been studied through three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations. Under different laser-plasma conditions, the wakefield shows different transverse structures. In general cases, the wakefield shows a donut-like structure and it accelerates the ring-shaped hollow electron beam. When a lower plasma density or a smaller laser spot size is used, besides the donut-like wakefield, a central bell-like wakefield can also be excited. The wake sets in the center of the donut-like wake. In this case, both a central on-axis electron beam and a ring-shaped electron beam are simultaneously accelerated. Further, reducing the plasma density or laser spot size leads to an on-axis electron beam acceleration only. The research is beneficial for some potential applications requiring special pulse beam structures, such as positron acceleration and collimation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Origin and acceleration of suprathermal particles

Observations over the last decade have shown that suprathermal ions with energies above that of the core or bulk solar wind protons (i.e., ~1-2 keV/nucleon) are an important constituent of the overall seed population that is accelerated in solar and interplanetary events. Despite the recent recognition of their importance, the origin of these populations and the method of their acceleration remains poorly understood. This is partly due to the fact that these particles exist in the so-called tail regions of the corresponding solar wind distributions where high temporal and sensitivity measurements are sparse. Moreover, observations comprising long-term averages (between hours to more than a day) show conflicting results. For instance, below ~40 keV/nucleon the ion differential intensities in the solar wind frame appear to exhibit a near-constant power-law spectral slope of ~1.5, perhaps indicating a universal acceleration mechanism. In contrast, at energies greater than ~40 keV/nucleon, the ion composition changes with solar activity, and the energy spectra are significantly steeper, perhaps indicating that the suprathermal pool of material also comprises lower-energy particle populations accelerated in corotating interaction regions, interplanetary shocks, and solar energetic particle events. This paper discusses key observations of suprathermal ions and electrons in terms of state-of-the-art theories and models that have been put forward to account for their origin and acceleration.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

The acceleration of electrons at a spherical coronal shock in a streamer-like coronal field

We study the effect of large-scale coronal magnetic field on the electron acceleration at a spherical coronal shock using a test-particle method. The coronal field is approximated by an analytical solution with a streamer-like magnetic field featured by partially open magnetic field and a current sheet at the equator atop the closed region. It shows that the closed field plays the role of a trapping agency of shock-accelerated electrons, allowing for repetitive reflection and acceleration, therefore can greatly enhance the shock-electron acceleration efficiency. It is found that, with an ad hoc pitch-angle scattering, electron injected in the open field at the shock flank can be accelerated to high energies as well. In addition, if the shock is faster or stronger, a relatively harder electron energy spectrum and a larger maximum energy can be achieved.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Plasmon-driven acceleration in a photo-excited nanotube

A plasmon-assisted channeling acceleration can be realized with a large channel, possibly at the nanometer scale. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are the most typical example of nano-channels that can confine a large number of channeled particles in a photon-plasmon coupling condition. This paper presents a theoretical and numerical study on the concept of high-field charge acceleration driven by photo-excited Luttinger-liquid plasmons in a nanotube. An analytic description of the plasmon-assisted laser acceleration is detailed with practical acceleration parameters, in particular, with the specifications of a typical tabletop femtosecond laser system. Lastly, the maximally achievable acceleration gradients and energy gains within dephasing lengths and CNT lengths are discussed with respect to laser-incident angles and CNT-filling ratios.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Laser vacuum acceleration of a relativistic electron bunch

With regard to the problem of laser acceleration of a relativistic electron bunch we present a scheme of its vacuum acceleration directly by a relativistic intensity laser pulse. The energy of the electron bunch injected into the laser pulse leading edge increases during its coaxial movement to a thin, pulse-reflecting target. The laser-accelerated electrons continue to move free forward, passing through the target. The study of this acceleration scheme in the three-dimensional geometry is verified in a numerical simulation by the particle-in-cell method, which showed that the energy of a part of the electrons can increase significantly compared to the initial one. Restrictions are discussed, which impose limiting values of energy and total charge of accelerated electrons. (superstrong light fields)

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

ON THE RADIO POLARIZATION SIGNATURE OF EFFICIENT AND INEFFICIENT PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN SUPERNOVA REMNANT SN 1006

Radio polarization observations provide essential information on the degree of order and orientation of magnetic fields, which themselves play a key role in the particle acceleration processes that take place in supernova remnants (SNRs). Here we present a radio polarization study of SN 1006, based on combined Very Large Array and Australia Telescope Compact Array observations at 20 cm that resulted in sensitive images with an angular resolution of 10 arcsec. The fractional polarization in the two bright radio and X-ray lobes of the SNR is measured to be 0.17, while in the southeastern sector, where the radio and non-thermal X-ray emission are much weaker, the polarization fraction reaches a value of 0.6 {+-} 0.2, close to the theoretical limit of 0.7. We interpret this result as evidence of a disordered, turbulent magnetic field in the lobes, where particle acceleration is believed to be efficient, and a highly ordered field in the southeast, where the acceleration efficiency has been shown to be very low. Utilizing the frequency coverage of our observations, an average rotation measure of {approx}12 rad m{sup -2} is determined from the combined data set, which is then used to obtain the intrinsic direction of the magnetic field vectors. While the orientation of magnetic field vectors across the SNR shell appear to be radial, a large fraction of the magnetic vectors lie parallel to the Galactic plane. Along the highly polarized southeastern rim, the field is aligned tangent to the shock, and therefore also nearly parallel to the Galactic plane. These results strongly suggest that the ambient field surrounding SN 1006 is aligned with this direction (i.e., from northeast to southwest) and that the bright lobes are due to a polar cap geometry. Our study establishes that the most efficient particle acceleration and generation of magnetic turbulence in SN 1006 is attained for shocks in which the magnetic field direction and shock normal are quasi-parallel, while inefficient acceleration and little to no generation of magnetic turbulence are obtained for the quasi-perpendicular case.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗