Plasma Jet Creation and Collision Using a Ring of Laser Beams

POSTER

Abstract

Stable, supersonic cylindrical plasma jets with self-generated megagauss magnetic fields extending beyond 4 mm by irradiating a flat plastic target in a hollow ring configuration using 20 OMEGA laser beams at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester [1]. By employing two such target configurations in a single shot, we launched counter-propagating jets and investigated the formation of magnetized shocks arising from their collision. In this poster, we present detailed observations of the shock structure and evolution using targets composed of pure CH, Fe-doped CH, and iodine-doped CH. These experiments provide a controlled platform to systematically explore the role of radiative cooling in shaping the dynamics of strongly magnetized shocks.

*U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration under Grant No. DE-NA0002721 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE-SC0020103 NASA Living with a Star Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by UCAR’s CPAESS under award #80NSSC22M0097. The software used in this work was developed in part by the DOE NNSA- and DOE Office of Science-supported Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester.

Publication: [1] L. Gao, E. Liang, Y. Lu, R. K. Follet, H. Sio, P. Tzeferacos, D. H. Froula, A. Birkel, C. K. Li, D. Lamb, R. Petrasso, W. Fu, M. Wei, and H. Ji, Mega-gauss plasma jet creation using a ring of laser beams. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 873(2), 2019, L11.

[2] B. Fryxell, K. Olson, P. Ricker, F. X. Timmes, M. Zingale, D. Q. Lamb, P. MacNeice, R. Rosner, J. W. Truran, and H. Tufo, FLASH: An adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code for modeling astrophysical thermonuclear flashes. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 131(1), 2000, 273.

[3] P. Tzeferacos, M. Fatenejad, N. Flocke, C. Graziani, G. Gregori, D. Q. Lamb, D. Lee, J. Meinecke, A. Scopatz, and K. Weide, FLASH MHD simulations of experiments that study shock-generated magnetic fields. High Energy Density Physics, 17, 2015, 24–31.

Presenters

  • Yang Zhang

    • Princeton
    • Princeton University & UCAR

Authors

  • Yang Zhang

    • Princeton
    • Princeton University & UCAR

  • Kian Orr

    • Princeton University

  • Lan Gao

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)

  • Kirill Lezhnin

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)

  • Brandon K Russell

    • Princeton University
    • University of Michigan

  • Hantao Ji

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
    • Princeton University

  • Edison P Liang

    • Rice University

  • Hui Li

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

  • Geoffrey Pomraning

    • Princeton University

  • Eddie C Hansen

    • University of Rochester
    • Univeristy of Rochester

  • Petros Tzeferacos

    • University of Rochester

  • Mingsheng Wei

    • University of Rochester