Time-resolved optical shadowgraphy of solid hydrogen jets as a testbed to benchmark particle-in-cell simulations

Le résumé fourni par la source

Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are commonly used to model the kinetics-dominated plasmas of laser-ion acceleration (dimensionless vectorpotential of the laser a0 > 1). Recently, significant effort is spend on simulations that include preexpansion of the target by the leading edge of nowadays Petawatt-class laser sources. This calls for benchmarks of the available PIC-simulation capabilities at subrelativistic laser intensities (a0 ≲ 1). We propose laser-irradiated cryogenic hydrogen jets as an appropriate testbed [1]. Time-resolved optical shadowgraphy, further processed by hydrodynamics and ray-tracing simulations, measures the evolution of the bulk-electron temperature and enables benchmarks of common approximations in PIC simulations of laser-solid interactions. [1] Yang et al., Commun. Phys., https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-023-01473-w (2023)

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.