Enhanced ion heating with ~ keV temperature at solid density in high power laser-driven buried layer targets for NEEC/NEET

The coupling between high power laser-driven plasmas physics, atomic physics and nuclear physics aiming to detect and study NEEC/NNET is a very interesting and exciting research area. In this talk, we propose to study NEET/NEEC in buried layer targets, using high repetition-rate (1-10 Hz) 100 TW to PW class laser systems. In this scenario, extreme conditions of highly charged ions with ~ keV temperature at solid density are predicted by our Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations (including both collisions and ionization) enabling the study of NEET/NEEC in buried layers [1]. The simulations show that the expansion/compression waves are launched at layer interfaces due to Gigabar electron pressure gradients caused by return current heating. The hydro-motion pushed by the expansion/compression waves is rapidly converted into thermal motion mainly due to the efficient ion-ion collisional coupling, leading to the extreme temperatures at about solid density. The experimental feasibility to realize NEET/NEEC at the HZDR DRACO laser and the HiBEF laser at EuXFEL will be discussed [2].
[1] L. G. Huang, M. Bussmann, T. Kluge, A. L. Lei, W. Yu, and T. E. Cowan, Phys. Plasmas 20, 093109 (2013).
[2] http://www.hibef.eu.