LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

TERM PAPER

LASER PLASMA INTERACTION

Subject: Physics (PHY 102)

DOA- 25-8-10

DOS- 10-11-10

Submitted to- Submitted by-

Shreekanth Reddy Debakshi Dutta

Department of Physics Roll No- RE6001B52

Reg. No:- 11005922

Class:- Ist sem

 Acknowledgement

I owe a deep sense of reverence to shreekanth Reddy my immediate instructor, who at every step
guided me with sincere efforts and enriched me with their profound knowledge of laser plasma
interaction. I thank them for their inspirational guidance and frequent stimulation despite their
busy schedules.

Words elude me in expressing my profound gratitude to my whole them their pains taking
guidance, constant, encouragement, constructive suggestions, thought provoking discussion and
giving useful opportunity to practically handle the whole project.

I would also like to thank the technical staff who helped me a lot in understanding the complex
details of the machinery.

Last but not the least I am thankful to my parents who helped me to reach the position I am today
at. It is a result of their constant support and guidance that inspired me to go for these studies

CONTENTS
1. Introduction

2. Plasma Property and parameter

3. Definition

 Plasma approximation

 Bulk interaction

 Plasma Frequency

4. Ranges Of Plasma parameter

5. Degree of ionization

6. Temperature

7. Magnetization

8. Comparison of Plasma and gas phases

9. Laser plasma interaction

10.Interaction of matter with ultra high peak power

11.Motivation

12.Future application

13.Laser based accelerator

 Fast ignitator fusion

 Non Linear Quantum

 Electrodynamics

 Future increase in Laser energy

 14.References

has properties quite unlike those of solids,

liquids, or gases and is considered to be a
distinct state of matter. Like gas, plasma
does not have a definite shape or a definite

volume unless enclosed in a container;

unlike gas, under the influence of a magnetic
field, it may form structures such as
filaments, beams and double layers. Some
common plasmas are stars and neon signs.

Plasma was first identified in a Crookes

tube, and so described by Sir William
Crookes in 1879 (he called physics "radiant
matter"). The nature of the Crookes tube
"cathode ray" matter was subsequently
identified by British physicist Sir J.J.
Thomson in 1897, and dubbed "plasma" by
Irving Langmuir in 1928, perhaps because it
reminded him of a blood plasma. Langmuir
wrote:

Except near the electrodes, where there are

sheaths containing very few electrons, the
ionized gas contains ions and electrons in
about equal numbers so that the resultant
Introduction space charge is very small. We shall use the
name plasma to describe this region
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state containing balanced charges of ions and
of matter similar to gas in which a certain electrons.
portion of the particles are ionized. The
basic premise is that heating a gas
dissociates its molecular bonds, rendering it
into its constituent atoms. Further heating
leads to ionization (a loss of electrons),
turning it into a plasma: containing charged
particles, positive ions and negative electron]

The presence of a non-negligible number of

charge carriers makes the plasma electrically
conductive so that it responds strongly to
electromagnetic fields. Plasma, therefore,

Fig1
Plasma properties and
parameters
Fig 2
Artist's rendition of the Earth's "plasma
fountain", showing oxygen, helium, and
hydrogen ions which gush into space from
regions near the Earth's poles. The faint
yellow area shown above the north pole
represents gas lost from Earth into space; the
green area is the aurora borealis, where
plasma energy pours back into the
atmosphere
Definition of a plasma
Plasma is loosely described as an electrically
neutral medium of positive and negative
particles (i.e. the overall charge of a plasma
is roughly zero). It is important to note that
although they are unbound, these particles
are not ‘free’. When the charges move they
generate electrical currents with magnetic
fields, and as a result, they are affected by
each other’s fields. This governs their
collective behavior with many degrees of
freedom. A definition can have three
criteria:
1.The plasma approximation: Charged
particles must be close enough together that
each particle influences many nearby
charged particles, rather than just interacting
with the closest particle (these collective
effects are a distinguishing feature of a
plasma). The plasma approximation is valid
when the number of charge carriers within
the sphere of influence (called the Debye
sphere whose radius is the Debye screening
length) of a particular particle are higher
than unity to provide collective behavior of
the charged particles. The average number
of particles in the Debye sphere is given by
the plasma parameter, "Λ" (the Greek letter
Lambda).
2.Bulk interactions: The Debye screening
length (defined above) is short compared to
the physical size of the plasma. This
criterion means that interactions in the bulk
of the plasma are more important than those
at its edges, where boundary effects may
take place. When this criterion is satisfied,
the plasma is quasineutral.

3.Plasma frequency: The electron plasma

frequency (measuring plasma oscillations of
the electrons) is large compared to the
electron-neutral collision frequency
(measuring frequency of collisions between
electrons and neutral particles). When this
condition is valid, electrostatic interactions
dominate over the processes of ordinary gas
kinetics.
Typical ranges of plasma
parameters: orders of
Ranges of plasma parameters magnitude
Plasma parameters can take on values
varying by many orders of magnitude, but
the properties of plasmas with apparently
disparate parameters may be very similar Cosmic
(see plasma scaling). The following chart Terrestrial
considers only conventional atomic plasmas plasmas
plasmas
and not exotic phenomena like quark gluon Characteristic
plasmas:
10−6 m
−6
10 m (lab (spacecraft
plasmas) to sheath) to
Size
102 m 1025 m
in meters
(lightning) (intergalactic
(~8 OOM) nebula) (~31
OOM)

10−12 s
(laser- 101 s (solar
produced flares) to
Lifetime plasma) to 1017 s
in seconds 107 s (intergalactic
(fluorescent plasma) (~16
lights) (~19 OOM)
Fig 3 OOM)

107 m−3 to 1 m−3

Range of plasmas. Density increases
Density 1032 m−3 (intergalactic
upwards, temperature increases towards the
in particles per (inertial medium) to
right. The free electrons in a metal may be
cubic meter confinement 1030 m−3 (stellar
considered an electron plasma.
plasma) core)
 ions and electrons would want to clump
~0 K together into bound states—atoms.[13] This is
(crystalline why plasmas typically arise at very high
non-neutral 102 K (aurora) temperatures.
Temperature plasma[) to to
in kelvins 108 K 107 K (solar Plasma temperature is commonly measured
(magnetic core) in kelvins or electronvolts and is an informal
fusion measure of the thermal kinetic energy per
plasma) particle. In most cases the electrons are close
enough to thermal equilibrium that their
10−4 T (lab temperature is relatively well-defined, even
10−12 T when there is a significant deviation from a
plasma) to
Magnetic (intergalactic Maxwellian energy distribution function, for
103 T
fields medium) to example, due to UV radiation, energetic
(pulsed-
in teslas 1011 T (near particles, or strong electric fields. Because
power
neutron stars) of the large difference in mass, the electrons
plasma)
come to thermodynamic equilibrium
Degree of ionization amongst themselves much faster than they
come into equilibrium with the ions or
For plasma to exist, ionization is necessary. neutral atoms. For this reason, the "ion
The term "plasma density" by itself usually temperature" may be very different from
refers to the "electron density", that is, the (usually lower than) the "electron
number of free electrons per unit volume. temperature". This is especially common in
The degree of ionization of a plasma is the weakly ionized technological plasmas,
proportion of atoms which have lost (or where the ions are often near the ambient
gained) electrons, and is controlled mostly temperature.
by the temperature. Even a partially ionized
gas in which as little as 1% of the particles Based on the relative temperatures of the
are ionized can have the characteristics of a electrons, ions and neutrals, plasmas are
plasma (i.e., response to magnetic fields and classified as "thermal" or "non-thermal".
high electrical conductivity). The degree of Thermal plasmas have electrons and the
ionization, α is defined as α = ni/(ni + na) heavy particles at the same temperature, i.e.,
where ni is the number density of ions and na they are in thermal equilibrium with each
is the number density of neutral atoms. The other. Non-thermal plasmas on the other
electron density is related to this by the hand have the ions and neutrals at a much
average charge state <Z> of the ions through lower temperature, (normally room
ne = <Z> ni where ne is the number density temperature), whereas electrons are much
of electrons. "hotter".

Temperature controls the degree of plasma

Temperatures ionization. In particular, plasma ionization is
determined by the "electron temperature"
The kinetic energy of a plasma particle is
relative to the ionization energy, (and more
considerably higher than its potential, where
weakly by the density), in a relationship
charged particles travel at high speeds. If the
called the Saha equation. A plasma is
potential were greater than the kinetic, then
sometimes referred to as being "hot" if it is
the plasma state would be destroyed as the
nearly fully ionized, or "cold" if only a small
fraction, (for example 1%), of the gas
molecules are ionized, but other definitions
of the terms "hot plasma" and "cold plasma"
are common. Even in a "cold" plasma, the
electron temperature is still typically several
thousand degrees Celsius. Plasmas utilized
in "plasma technology" ("technological
plasmas") are usually cold in this sense.
Potentials
Fig 4
Lightning is an example of plasma present at
Earth's surface. Typically, lightning
discharges 30,000 amperes at up to 100
million volts, and emits light, radio waves,
X-rays and even gamma rays.[14] Plasma
temperatures in lightning can approach
~28,000 kelvin and electron densities may
exceed 1024 m−3.
Since plasmas are very good conductors,
electric potentials play an important role.
The potential as it exists on average in the
space between charged particles,
independent of the question of how it can be
measured, is called the "plasma potential",
or the "space potential". If an electrode is
inserted into a plasma, its potential will
generally lie considerably below the plasma
potential due to what is termed a Debye
sheath. The good electrical conductivity of
plasmas causes their electric fields to be
very small. This results in the important
concept of "quasineutrality", which says the
density of negative charges is approximately
equal to the density of positive charges over
large volumes of the plasma (ne = <Z>ni),
but on the scale of the Debye length there
can be charge imbalance. In the special case
that double layers are formed, the charge
separation can extend some tens of Debye
lengths.
The magnitude of the potentials and electric
fields must be determined by means other
than simply finding the net charge density.
A common example is to assume that the
electrons satisfy the "Boltzmann relation":
Differentiating this relation provides a
means to calculate the electric field from the
density:
.
It is possible to produce a plasma which is
not quasineutral. An electron beam, for
example, has only negative charges. The
density of a non-neutral plasma must
generally be very low, or it must be very
small, otherwise it will be dissipated by the
repulsive electrostatic force.
In astrophysical plasmas, Debye screening
prevents electric fields from directly
affecting the plasma over large distances,
i.e., greater than the Debye length. But the
existence of charged particles causes the
plasma to generate and can be affected by
magnetic fields. This can and does cause
extremely complex behavior, such as the
generation of plasma double layers, an
object which separates charge over a few
tens of Debye lengths. The dynamics of
plasmas interacting with external and self-
generated magnetic fields are studied in the
academic discipline of magneto
hydrodynamics.

Magnetization

Plasma in which the magnetic field is strong

enough to influence the motion of the
charged particles is said to be magnetized. A
common quantitative criterion is that a
particle on average completes at least one
gyration around the magnetic field before
making a collision, i.e., ωce/νcoll > 1, where
ωce is the "electron gyrofrequency" and νcoll Fig5
is the "electron collision rate". It is often the
Artist's rendition of the Earth's "plasma
case that the electrons are magnetized while
the ions are not. Magnetized plasmas are fountain", showing oxygen, helium, and
anisotropic, meaning that their properties in hydrogen ions which gush into space from
the direction parallel to the magnetic field regions near the Earth's poles. The faint
are different from those perpendicular to it. yellow area shown above the north pole
While electric fields in plasmas are usually represents gas lost from Earth into space; the
small due to the high conductivity, the green area is the aurora borealis, where
electric field associated with a plasma
plasma energy pours back into the
moving in a magnetic field is given by E =
−v x B (where E is the electric field, v is the atmosphere.
velocity, and B is the magnetic field), and is
not affected by Debye shielding.[15]

Comparison of plasma and gas LASER PLASMA INTERACTION

phases

Plasma is often called the fourth state of

matter. It is distinct from other lower-energy
states of matter; most commonly solid,
liquid, and gas. Although it is closely related
to the gas phase in that it also has no definite
form or volume, it differs in a number of
Plasma properties and parameters
Over the past decade fem to second lasers
have found much utility. Fem to second
lasers produced plasmas are violent objects
with extreme conditions of temperature and
pressure and so it is bright source of
electromagnetic radiation and high charge
state ions with energies extending from an
eV to MeV. Unusual electron temperatures
are as high as few KeVs. These properties of
this type of laser can be utilized for the
generation, optimization and applications of
fem to second x-ray source. The physics
underlying the efficient laser plasma
coupling schemes, plasma heating and x-ray
generation can be investigated with a
number of low z and high z targets. It can be
used to provide a predictable x ray source
for applications in time resolved
experiments.
Extremely short pulse can be made use of to
study the lattice dynamics and transient
chemical reaction dynamics.
Through high harmonic generation fem to
second or sub fem to second coherent pulses
are generated in the VUV to soft x-ray
region but phase matching of the generated
fields with the fundamentals one is one of
the challenges toward staining maximum
efficiency.
Interaction of matter with ultra
high peak powers
When an intense laser interacts with matter,
the laser electromagnetic field can far
exceed the coulomb field that binds
electrons to atoms, stripping off the
electrons (at 1019 W/cm2, the laser electric
field is close to 1011 V/ cm2 which is 20
times the field binding the ground state
electrons in the hydrogen atom.
In high fields, electrons can actually move
close to c. This is predicted to have several
important consequences, due to the action of
component of Lorentz force, resulting in
efficient harmonic generation by non linear
Thomson scattering and the electron mass
should increase significantly, modifying the
index of refraction of the medium. Large
index changes will in turn modify the
propagation of the laser which will further
modify the medium and so on.
Hence non linear effects such as laser self
focusing or self modulation should arise.
Motivation
Studying of interaction of a high power
pulsed laser with atomic clusters and
molecules which provide a form of matter
intermediate between molecules and bulk
solids. From a practical point of view the hot
dense plasma created by the irradiation of
atomic clusters by ultra short high power
laser pulses form a compact source of x-
rays, which has applications in extreme
ultraviolet lithography, x-ray microscopy
and x-ray tomography.
When an intense laser interacts with
matter, the laser electromagnetic field can
far exceed the coulomb field that binds
electrons to atoms, stripping off the
electrons (at 1019 W/cm2, the laser electric
field is close to 1011 V/ cm2whichis 20
times the field binding the ground state
electrons in the hydrogen atom.
Plasmas produced from solids using intense
ultra short laser pulses are found to be rich
sources of hard and soft x-rays, MeV
electrons and high energy ions.
Such sources can be explored for their use
in time resolved x-rays diffraction and
imaging.
The exact characterization of these
plasmas is required before it can be utilized
as potential x-ray source.
The source would be characterized in terms
of absolute x-ray yield, temporal duration
(ion and electron energies etc.)
Future applications
Laser based accelerator
Laser-plasma accelerated electron beams
(and the x-ray radiation that they can make)
may be useful for either medical or
industrial radiology. Besides their
compactness, laser accelerators have the
advantage of small electron size, 10times
smaller than conventional sources. This
permits a much higher spatial resolution
(micron-size scale) of small features in
radiological application.
Fast- ignitor fusion
Evidence suggest that laser induced burst of
hot electrons or protons could be used as a
spark plug to ignite a thermonuclear reaction
with inertial confinement fusion. With solid-
density targets, due to the combination of
the very large radiation pressure –far
exceeding the thermal pressure- combined
with a relativistic decrease of plasma
frequency, a pulse incident on an over dens
plasma will penetrate over several
wavelengths. This effect referred to as hole
boring has led to the concept of fast ignitor.
The fast ignitor concept offers the possibility
of high target gain at reduced total drive
energy, compared with conventional inertial
confinement fusion.
Non linear quantum
electrodynamics
Electron positron pair production directly
from laser requires an intensity of the order
of 1030 W/cm2, corresponding to a laser
field of 1016 V/cm, which is about four to
five orders of magnitude above the available
laser. This enormous gap is filled using 50
GeV electron beam corresponding to a
relativistic factor of 105.
Further increase in laser energy
As laser intensities increase further to the
order of peta watt and exa watt ? and laser
accelerated protons become relativistic,
exotic plasmas such as dense electron
positron plasmas which are of astrophysical
interest can be created in laboratory.
 REFERENCES

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Astrophysical, Geophysical & Laboratory Plasmas.. Cambridge University Press.
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Sheffield, on Friday, 22 August 1879
3. Announced in his evening lecture to the Royal Institution on Friday, 30th April 1897, and
published in Philosophical Magazine 44: 293. 1897.
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/thomson1897.html.
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doi:10.1073/pnas.14.8.627.
5. IPPEX Glossary of Fusion Terms
6. Plasma fountain Source, press release: Solar Wind Squeezes Some of Earth's Atmosphere
into Space
7. Hazeltine, R.D.; Waelbroeck, F.L. (2004). The Framework of Plasma Physics. Westview
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http://books.google.com/?id=S1C6-4OBOeYC.
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University Press. ISBN 0521471281.
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Plasmas". Astrophysics and Space Science 242: 93–163. doi:10.1007/BF00645112.
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