Giant magnetic fields and relativistic electron transport in dense, hot plasmas created on solid targets

Intense,femtosecond laser pulses generate relativistic electron pulses,important for many applications. In this paper, we present a femtosecond time-resolved and micrometer space resolved giant magnetic fields generated by 10¹⁹ W cm^-2, 800 nm, 30 fs, high intensity contrast laser pulses in using pump-probe Cotton Mouton polarimetry. The space and time resolved maps of the magnetic fields at the front and rear of targets reveal turbulence in the magnetic fields. We also present data from shadowgraphy and Cherenkov emission along with model calculations to build up a picture of the transport process.

GRK thanks J C Bose Fellowship Grant JCB-37/2010 for partial support.