PIC simulation for dense high Z plasma formation with ultrashort petawatt laser including radiation processes

Abstract

Creation of hot dense highly charged plasma is key to realizing novel radiation sources, e.g., high Z ion beams and intense hard X-rays. We study the formation of dense silver plasma driven by an ultrashort petawatt laser using one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations take into account physics of collisional energy transport, ionizations, and radiations byproducts. For this purpose, we implemented the algorithm of radiation energy loss in hot plasmas enabling self-consistent PIC simulations of the silver plasma formation with radiation cooling. We demonstrated the highly charged silver plasma formation with a pressure of ~ 10 petapascal by irradiating a petawatt laser with peak intensity of 1021 W/cm2 in 30 femtoseconds. The energy stored in the hot silver plasma is released as hard X-rays photons in a few picosecond time scale with radiation intensity of 1017 W/cm2. The energy conversion from the laser to the emitted X-rays reaches ~ 10%.