2023/06/01 by Long Yang, Lingen Huang, Yang, Long +25 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2306.00506
openalex publication_date 2023/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are a superior tool to model kinetics-dominated plasmas in relativistic and ultrarelativistic laser-solid interactions (dimensionless vectorpotential a0 > 1). The transition from relativistic to subrelativistic laser intensities (a0 \lesssim 1), where correlated and collisional plasma physics become relevant, is reaching the limits of available modeling capabilities. This calls for theoretical and experimental benchmarks and the establishment of standardized testbeds. In this work, we develop such a suitable testbed to experimentally benchmark PIC simulations using a laser-irradiated micron-sized cryogenic hydrogen-jet target. Time-resolved optical shadowgraphy of the expanding plasma density, complemented by hydrodynamics and ray-tracing simulations, is used to determine the bulk-electron temperature evolution after laser irradiation. As a showcase, a study of isochoric heating of solid hydrogen induced by laser pulses with a dimensionless vectorpotential of a0 ≈ 1 is presented. The comparison of the bulk-electron temperature of the experiment with systematic scans of PIC simulations demostrates that, due to an interplay of vacuum heating and resonance heating of electrons, the initial surface-density gradient of the target is decisive to reach quantitative agreement at \SI1\ps after the interaction. The showcase demostrates the readiness of the testbed for controlled parameter scans at all laser intensities of a0 \lesssim 1.