2021/03/30 by A. V. Bashinov, Bashinov, A. V., E. S. Efimenko +18
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Atomic physics #Cascade #Chemistry #Computational physics #Dipole #Electric field #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Magnetic dipole #Magnetic field #Nuclear physics #Optics #Photon #Physics #Plasma #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #Quantum mechanics #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.16488
arxiv created 2021/03/30 · openalex publication_date 2021/03/30 · arxiv updated 2021/03/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
When studying the interaction of matter with extreme fields using multipetawatt lasers, there are two limiting cases maximizing either the electric field or the magnetic field. Here, the main attention is paid to the optimal configuration of laser beams in the form of an m-dipole wave, which maximizes the magnetic field, and the corresponding production of pair plasma via a QED cascade using 10-PW class lasers. We show that the threshold of vacuum breakdown with respect to avalanche-like pair generation is about 10 PW. Using 3D PIC modeling in the specified fields, we go deeper into the physics of vacuum breakdown, i.e. we examined in detail the individual trajectories of particles produced in inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields, the space-time distributions of pair densities on the avalanche stage, and the energy distributions of charged particles and gamma photons. The forming plasma structures represent concentric rings around the central magnetic axis, which can result in significant change of laser-plasma interaction in comparison with the case of an e-dipole wave.