Publications Details

Transport of kJ-laser-driven relativistic electron beams in cold and shock-heated vitreous carbon and diamond

Bailly-Grandvaux, M.; Kim, J.; Krauland, C.M.; Zhang, S.; Dozieres, M.; Wei, M.S.; Theobald, W.; Grabowski, P.E.; Santos, J.J.; Nicolai, Ph; Mckenna, P.; Desjarlais, Michael P.; Beg, F.N.

We report experimental results on relativistic electron beam (REB) transport in a set of cold and shock-heated carbon samples using the high-intensity kilojoule-class OMEGA EP laser. The REB energy distribution and transport were diagnosed using an electron spectrometer and X-ray fluorescence measurements from a Cu tracer buried at the rear side of the samples. The measured rear REB density shows brighter and narrower signals when the targets were shock-heated. Hybrid PIC simulations using advanced resistivity models in the target warm-dense-matter (WDM) conditions confirm this observation. We show that the resistivity response of the media, which governs the self-generated resistive fields, is of paramount importance to understand and correctly predict the REB transport.