Simulation of electromagnetic pulses generated by escaped electrons in a high-power laser chamber

Abstract

Intensive electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) can be generated when a high-power laser strikes a target. The transient electromagnetic field can have an intensity of up to several hundred kV m−1 with a broad frequency of up to several gigahertz, which may affect diagnostics and interfere with, or even damage, electronic equipment. In this paper, the process in which hot electrons produced by the laser−target interaction radiate EMPs is studied and simulated. The physical process is divided into three stages which are: the production of hot electrons; the escape of hot electrons; and the generation of EMPs. Instead of using a general finite difference time domain (FDTD) method to solve the Maxwell equations, a particle-in-cell method together with a time-biased FDTD method is applied in EMP simulation to restrain high-frequency noise. The results show that EMPs are stronger with higher laser intensity and larger target size.