8–12 Jul 2019
University of Milano-Bicocca UNIMIB
Europe/Rome timezone

O4.205 Identification of coupling mechanisms between ultraintense laser light and dense plasmas

11 Jul 2019, 12:40
15m
Aula U6-06, Building U6 (University of Milano-Bicocca UNIMIB)

Aula U6-06, Building U6

University of Milano-Bicocca UNIMIB

Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1 20126 Milan (Italy)
BPIF BPIF

Speaker

G. Blaclard (EPS 2019)

Description

See the full abstract here http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2019ABS/pdf/O4.205.pdf

The interaction of intense laser beams with plasmas created on solid targets involves a rich non-linear physics. Because such dense plasmas are reflective for laser light, the coupling with the incident beam occurs within a thin layer at the interface between plasma and vacuum. One of the main paradigms used to understand this coupling, known as Brunel mechanism, is expected to be valid only for very steep plasma surfaces.
Despite innumerable studies, its validity range remains uncertain, and the physics involved for smoother plasma-vacuum interfaces is unclear, especially for ultrahigh laser intensities. We report the first comprehensive experimental and numerical study of the laser-plasma coupling mechanisms as a function of the plasma interface steepness, in the relativistic interaction regime. Our results reveal a clear transition from the temporally-periodic Brunel mechanism to a chaotic dynamic associated to stochastic heating. By revealing the key signatures of these two distinct regimes on experimental observables, we provide an important landmark for the interpretation of future experiments.

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