Absorption of Intense Short Laser Pulses in Nanowire Arrays

ORAL

Abstract

We study the absorption of intense short laser pulses in arrays of carbon nanowires attached to solid substrates; in particular, we are interested in sub-100fs pulses with several Joules of energy, as well as multi-picosecond, multi-kiloJoule pulses. In both cases, we find that laser absorption of nanowire targets exceeds that of flat targets even if preceded by density gradients. Performing two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we focus on laser absorption physics, particle acceleration during the formation of nanoscale z-pinches, and on applications like the optimization of this target platform for nuclear physics experiments [Kemp et al, Nat.Comm. 10:4156 (2019)] and compact, fast neutron sources.

*This work was completed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 with funding support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program under tracking code 20-ERD-026, the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program under SCW1265-1

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Authors

  • Andreas Kemp

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Scott Wilks

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL

  • Gary Grim

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Riccardo Tommasini

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Ginevra Cochran

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Jaebum Park

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab