Large-scale magnetic field generation by asymmetric laser-pulse interactions with a plasma in low-intensity regime

Abstract

We propose a way to enhance the strength of self-generated magnetic field from laser-plasma interactions by incorporating the combined role of pulse asymmetricity and plasma inhomogeneity. The pulse asymmetry combined with the plasma inhomogeneity contributes for strong nonlinear current within the pulse body; consequently, a stronger magnetic field can be produced. The nature of self-generated magnetic field is "Quasistatic" that means the self-generated magnetic field varies on the time scale of the period of laser radiation. Our results show that the magnetic-field generated by a temporally asymmetric laser pulse is many-folds higher than the magnetic-field generated by a symmetric laser pulse in plasmas. The present study predicts the generation of magnetic field of the order of 15 T for the laser intensity of similar to 10(14) cm(-2). Our study might be applicable to improve the accelerated bunch quality in laser wakefield acceleration mechanism. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.