Return current and proton emission from short pulse laser interactions with wire targets

Beg, F. N. and Wei, M. S. and Clark, E. L. and Dangor, A. E. and Evans, R. G. and Gibbon, P. and Gopal, A. and Lancaster, K. L. and Ledingham, K. W.D. and McKenna, P. and Norreys, P. A. and Tatarakis, M. and Zepf, M. and Krushelnick, K. (2004) Return current and proton emission from short pulse laser interactions with wire targets. Physics of Plasmas, 11 (5 PART). pp. 2806-2813. ISSN 1070-664X (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1704643)

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Abstract

Laser-plasma interaction experiments were conducted using the VULCAN laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The consequence of the return current and measurements of proton generation from the wire targets interacting with short pulse high intensity laser were produced. Optical and x-ray emission from the wire due to Ohmic heating caused by the return current were observed and an m=0 instability was found to develop in the wires. The proton emission was found to be in the form of an almost uniform double disk perpendicular to the wire at the interaction region.