Abstract Details
Penetration of a Laser-Produced Plasma Across an Externally Applied Magnetic Field
Author: Chris R Plechaty
Requested Type: Poster Only
Submitted: 2009-04-21 16:40:04
Co-authors: R. Presura, S. Wright, D. Martinez, S. Neff, V. Ivanov, and Y. Stepanenko
Contact Info:
University of Nevada, Reno: Nevada Terawatt Facili
5625 Fox Ave.
Reno, Nv 89506
USA
Abstract Text:
The flow of a plasma across an external magnetic field is an important topic in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. In experiments performed at the Nevada Terawatt Facility, a plasma flow was created by ablating a polyethylene (CH2) target with a high-intensity laser (10 J in 1 ps). This laser-produced plasma was allowed to interact with a magnetic field produced by passing a 0.6 MA (200 ns rise time) current through a straight cylindrical electrode. In experiment, the laser-produced plasma was diagnosed with interferometry and Schlieren diagnostics in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field.
In experiment, the laser-produced plasma was observed to be collimated by, and penetrate, the externally applied magnetic field. In previous experiments performed with a nanosecond laser pulse (Mostovych (1988), Peyser (1992) and Bruneteau (1970)), a similar effect was observed, and was attributed to E X B drift produced by the
polarization of the plasma flow. All current progress will be presented.
This work was supported by the US Dept of Energy under UNR grant DE-FC52-
06NA27616.
References:
Bruneteau J., Fabre E., Lamain H., and Vasseur P., Phys. Fluids 13 (7), pp 1795 (1970).
Mostovych A., Ripin B., and Stamper J., Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 (24), pp 2837 (1989).
Peyser T., Manka C., Ripin B., and Ganguli G., Phys. Fluids B 4 (8), pp 2448 (1992).
Comments:
In the abstract the sentence:
...was attributed to E X B drift produced...
the E is a vector, the B is a vector, and X is the notation for a cross product.