arXiv subjects

Vikrant Saxena

Publications and source records attributed to Vikrant Saxena.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Modelling of Flowing Plasma in the Magnetic Field of the Small Volume Plasma System Experiment

A flow model for a magnetized plasma has been developed to investigate the flow dynamics in the small volume plasma system (SVPS) experiment. The SVPS experimental conditions require the model to describe a stationary, collisional, quasineutral, axisymmetric plasma. Also, the ions are cold while the electrons are isothermal and in thermal equilibrium, obeying the Boltzmann relation. In a plasma flowing along a magnetic field, the velocity of ions along the magnetic field lines is much greater than the velocity perpendicular to the field. The latter feature permits a unique ordering of the relevant variables, when the flow equations are transformed to the magnetic coordinate system (MCS), where the coordinate axes are parallel and perpendicular to the field lines. The ordering of the flow variables in the MCS allows a further simplification of the flow equations, by permitting their splitting into set of reduced, simplified equations. The SVPS experimental data are used to provide the requisite boundary conditions for initializing and solving the reduced flow equations on a magnetic coordinate grid along the different lines of the MCS. An important aspect of the present work is the validation of the splitting scheme used to derive the simplified and reduced flow equations. This is achieved by an in-depth comparison of the predictions from the model equations with the experimental data. The obtained numerical results compare favourably with the SVPS observations and have been discussed rigorously. The model developed here provides a framework for exploring magnetized plasma dynamics in the given cylindrically symmetric magnetic field configuration and can be further extended to more complex configurations.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Three Dimensional Effects on Proton Acceleration with Grooved Hydrocarbon Targets

Recently, using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, it has been demonstrated that in laser based proton acceleration with micro-structured targets, a single rectangular groove on the target front offers significant proton cut-off enhancement with linearly polarised laser pulses. In the present work, three-dimensional investigations are carried out to identify notable differences between cylindrical and cuboidal groove geometries both of which correspond to a rectangular groove in a two-dimensional case. In particular, a waveguide model is employed to analyse the effect of the groove geometry and extensive three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are performed to demonstrate the distinct behaviour of laser pulse and electrons for cylindrical and cuboidal grooves. Further, the effect of a circular polarisation of the incident laser pulse on the spectra of accelerated protons is studied. It is shown that contrary to our initial expectations, cylindrical symmetry and circular polarisation do not play well together and cause as much as 15$\%$ decay in proton cut-off energies as compared to the case of cylindrical symmetry and linear polarisation.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

On the critical role of the rear wall thickness of a grooved TNSA target

The cutoff energy and the divergence of the protons generated by the target normal sheath acceleration mechanism are known to be significantly influenced by micrometer and nanometer-size structures on the target front and rear surfaces. Specifically, the cutoff energy is significantly enhanced by creating a central rectangular groove on the target front surface, as shown in a recent study [Physics of Plasmas, 30(6), 063102 (2023)]. Here we report on 2D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations to thoroughly explore the effect of the depth of the central rectangular groove on the energy spectra of the accelerated protons. The proton cutoff energy is found to enhance drastically as the thickness of the rear wall of the groove is reduced from a few micrometers to a few tens of nanometers, however, it drops sharply as the thickness of the rear wall is further reduced towards creating a complete hole through the target.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Nonlinear evolution of a cold non-relativistic electron-ion plasma with an arbitrary initial density profile: A phase mixing perspective

Using a perturbative approach, an evolution equation for the space charge density, correct up to the third order, is deduced for arbitrary initial density profiles of the electron and ion fluids in a cold nonrelativistic plasma. The evolution equation is solved to reproduce known results pertaining to the phase mixing time in the immobile ion limit as well as in the case of mobile ions, for a homogeneous plasma as well as for a plasma with a periodic inhomogeneity. The case of non-periodic plasma inhomogeneity, as in a finite-size plasma, is also discussed and some insights are given which are well supported by fluid simulation observations.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

A Comparative Analysis of Relativistic Particle Pushers vis-\`a-vis Computation Time & Accuracy

The performance of relativistic particle pushers has long been a topic of interest in the field of computational plasma physics, particularly from the point of view of the particle-in-cell approach. Previous works undertaken to compare such integrators have predominantly targeted the ultra-relativistic regime. In this paper, we utilize a custom-built code to study the core run-times of the Boris, the Vay, and the Higuera-Cary particle pushers for low-, high-, and ultra-relativistic particles. This is followed by a comparison of the three integrators in terms of accuracy and error. A fitness parameter is then proposed that can serve as a one-stop value to determine which method is more suitable for a particular simulation setup. It is hoped that through knowledge of such intricacies, the choice for the integrator will be easier to make depending on the problem at hand.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

TNSA based proton acceleration by two oblique laser pulses in the presence of an axial magnetic field

A recently proposed strategy to boost the proton/ion cutoff energy in the target normal sheath acceleration scheme employs two obliquely incident laser pulses simultaneously irradiating the flat target rather than a single normally incident laser pulse of twice the pulse energy. Moreover, the presence of an externally applied magnetic field along the normal of the target's rear surface is known to reduce the angular divergence of hot electrons which results in a more efficient sheath field at the target rear leading to increased cutoff energy of accelerated protons/ions. In the present work, we employ two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations to examine, in detail, the effect of such a magnetic field on the cutoff energy of protons/ions in the cases of normal as well as oblique incidence of the laser pulse on a flat target. It is shown that the two-oblique-pulse configuration combined with an external magnetic field results in a stronger enhancement of the cutoff energies as compared to the normal incidence case.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Fluid Simulation for a Finite Size Plasma

Studies on finite-size plasma have attracted a lot of attention lately. They can form by ionizing liquid droplets by lasers. The dynamical behavior of such plasma droplets is, therefore, a topic of significant interest. In particular, questions related to the linear and nonlinear characteristics (associated with the inhomogeneous density typically at the edge of the droplet), the behavior of plasma expansion, etc., are of interest. A one-dimensional fluid simulation study has been carried out to investigate this behavior. It is observed that a slight imbalance in the charge density leads to oscillations that are concentrated and keep acquiring higher amplitude and sharper profile at the inhomogeneous edge region. Such oscillations lead to the expansion of the droplet. Though the fluid description breaks when the sharpness of these structures becomes comparable to the grid size, it provides a reasonable estimate of wave-breaking time. The presence of dissipative effects like diffusion is shown to arrest the sharpness of these structures. The dynamics of these structures in the presence of an externally applied oscillating electric field corresponding to a long wavelength radiation has also been studied.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2023

Not-so-efficient proton acceleration by an intense laser pulse obliquely incident on a structured target

The interaction of an obliquely incident laser pulse with a flat TNSA target is known to enhance the cut-off energy of protons/ions as compared to a normally incident laser pulse, mostly owing to Brunnel absorption. However, it is not well understood how the oblique incidence of the laser pulse would affect the protons/ion spectra in the case of a micro-structured target. Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show here that the protons/ions cut-off energies are rather reduced in the case of oblique incidence of the laser pulse if the target has a micron-sized groove on its front surface. This is also found to be true for a periodically grooved target.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2023

Enhanced target normal sheath acceleration with a grooved hydrocarbon target

The interaction of a high-intensity ultrashort laser pulse with a few microns-thick hydrocarbon target is known to accelerate protons/ions to multi-MeV, on the rear side of the target, via the mechanism of target normal sheath acceleration. Micro-structuring the target front is one of the promising approaches to enhance the cut-off energy as well as to reduce the divergence of accelerated protons/ions. In this paper, the interaction of a normally incident intense laser pulse with targets having single micron-sized grooves, at their front side, of semi-circular, triangular, and rectangular shapes has been studied by using two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. It is observed that as compared to a flat target for targets with a rectangular groove at the front side the focused hot electron beam at the rear side results in an approximately four-fold increase in the cut-off energy of accelerated protons. For triangular and semi-circular groove targets, the cut-off energy remains comparatively lower (higher than the flat target though). The angular divergence of the accelerated protons/ions is also found to be relatively much lower in the case of a rectangular groove.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2016

Hydrodynamic model for expansion and collisional relaxation of x-ray laser-excited multi-component nanoplasma

The irradiation of an atomic cluster with a femtosecond x-ray free-electron laser pulse results in a nanoplasma formation. This typically occurs within a few hundreds femtoseconds. By this time the x-ray pulse is over, and the direct photoinduced processes no longer contributing. All created electrons within the nanoplasma are thermalized. The nanoplasma thus formed is a mixture of atoms, electrons and ions of various charges. While expanding, it is undergoing electron impact ionization and three-body recombination. Below we present a hydrodynamic model to describe the dynamics of such multi-component nanoplasma. The model equations are derived by taking the moments of the corresponding Boltzmann kinetic equations. We include the equations obtained, together with the source terms due to electron impact ionization and three-body recombination, in our hydrodynamic solver. Model predictions for a test case: expanding spherical Ar nanoplasma are obtained. With this model we complete the two-step approach to simulate x-ray created nanoplasmas, enabling computationally efficient simulations of their picosecond dynamics. Moreover, the hydrodynamic framework including collisional processes can be easily extended for other source terms and then applied to follow relaxation of any finite non-isothermal multi-component nanoplasma with its components relaxed into local thermodynamic equilibrium.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Hydrodynamic model for picosecond propagation of laser-created nanoplasmas

The interaction of a free-electron-laser pulse with a moderate or large size cluster is known to create a quasi-neutral nanoplasma, which then expands on hydrodynamic timescale, i.e., $>1$ ps. To have a better understanding of ion and electron data from experiments derived from laser-irradiated clusters, one needs to simulate cluster dynamics on such long timescales for which the molecular dynamics approach becomes inefficient. We therefore propose a two-step Molecular Dynamics-Hydrodynamic scheme. In the first step we use molecular dynamics code to follow the dynamics of an irradiated cluster until all the photo-excitation and corresponding relaxation processes are finished and a nanoplasma, consisting of ground-state ions and thermalized electrons, is formed. In the second step we perform long-timescale propagation of this nanoplasma with a computationally efficient hydrodynamic approach. In the present paper we examine the feasibility of a hydrodynamic two-fluid approach to follow the expansion of spherically symmetric nanoplasma, without accounting for the impact ionization and three-body recombination processes at this stage. We compare our results with the corresponding molecular dynamics simulations. We show that all relevant information about the nanoplasma propagation can be extracted from hydrodynamic simulations at a significantly lower computational cost when compared to a molecular dynamics approach. Finally, we comment on the accuracy and limitations of our present model and discuss possible future developments of the two-step strategy.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2008

Stability of nonlinear one-dimensional laser pulse solitons in a plasma

In a recent one-dimensional numerical fluid simulation study [Saxena et al., Phys. Plasmas 13,032309 (2006)], it was found that an instability is associated with a special class of one-dimensional nonlinear solutions for modulated light pulses coupled to electron plasma waves in a relativistic cold plasma model. It is shown here that the instability can be understood on the basis of the stimulated Raman scattering phenomenon and the occurrence of density bursts in the trailing edge of the modulated structures are a manifestation of an explosive instability arising from a nonlinear phase mixing mechanism.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2005

Fluid simulation studies of the dynamical behaviour of one dimensional relativistic electromagnetic solitons

A numerical fluid simulation investigation of the temporal evolution of a special class of traveling wave solution of the one dimensional relativistic cold plasma model is reported.The solutions consist of coupled electromagnetic and plasma waves in a solitary pulse shape (Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 3172(1992); Phys. Plasmas 9, 1820(2002)).Issues pertaining to their stability, mutual collisional interactions and propagation in an inhomogeneous plasma medium are addressed. It is found that solitary pulses that consist of a single light peak trapped in a modulated density structure are long lived whereas structures with multiple peaks of trapped light develop an instability at the trailing edge. The interaction properties of two single peak structures show interesting dependencies on their relative amplitudes and propagation speeds and can be understood in terms of their propagation characteristics in an inhomogeneous plasma medium.

physics.plasm-ph↗