Radiation Reaction Effects on Electron Nonlinear Dynamics and Ion Acceleration in Laser-solid Interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates how radiation reaction influences electron dynamics and ion acceleration during ultra-intense laser interactions with thin plasma foils, revealing electron cooling, enhanced bunching, and phase space contraction.

Contribution

It provides an analytical and simulation-based study of radiation reaction effects on plasma dynamics, highlighting new insights into electron cooling and phase space behavior.

Findings

Radiation reaction causes significant electron cooling.

Enhanced spatial bunching of electrons and ions observed.

Phase space volume contracts due to radiation reaction.

Abstract

Radiation Reaction (RR) effects in the interaction of an ultra-intense laser pulse with a thin plasma foil are investigated analytically and by two-dimensional (2D3P) Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. It is found that the radiation reaction force leads to a significant electron cooling and to an increased spatial bunching of both electrons and ions. A fully relativistic kinetic equation including RR effects is discussed and it is shown that RR leads to a contraction of the available phase space volume. The results of our PIC simulations are in qualitative agreement with the predictions of the kinetic theory.