Laser pulse interaction with plasma under conditions of broken axial symmetry

Abstract: The nonlinear interaction of intense laser pulses with matter may lead to the excitation of self-consistent motion of charges and the generation of a magnetic field that remains in the plasma after the end of the laser action. One of the methods to induce azimuthal currents in the given direction is to violate the axial symmetry in the system. Two ways of creating a preferred direction of motion of the charges during the interaction are considered, one of them is associated with the target structure, and the second one – with the structure of the pulse itself. For the case of high-power multi-petawatt femtosecond laser pulses of the XCELS setup, the estimates of characteristic parameters are given. And here the induction of axial magnetic fields can reach tens of kT in microcapillary structured targets. In case of the interaction of structured pulses with homogeneous plasma the axial magnetic field of the order of tens of T can occupy the area with the diameter of hundreds of micrometers. Schemes of the corresponding experiments are proposed, and possible applications are discussed.

Keywords: interaction of radiation with matter, axial symmetry, magnetic field, structured pulse, structured target.