This article is cited in 3 papers

Interaction of extreme light fields with matter

Effect of electron-positron plasma production on the generation of a magnetic field in laser-plasma interactions

A. S. Samsonov^a, E. N. Nerush^a, I. Yu. Kostyukov<sup>ab

a</sup> Federal Research Center The Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod
^b National Engineering Physics Institute "MEPhI", Moscow

Abstract: We consider the effect of electron–positron pair production on the generation of a quasi-stationary magnetic field in the interaction of an ultra-intense circularly polarised laser pulse with a thick plasma target. Full-scale three-dimensional numerical simulations by the particle-in-cell method performed taking into account quantum electrodynamic effects indicates a qualitative change in the generation of the magnetic field at a laser radiation intensity $I\gtrsim10^{24}$ W cm$^{-2}$, which gives rise to a macroscopic number of electron-positron pairs. In this case, the amplitude of the magnetic field increases with an increase in the radiation intensity, whereas the amplitude of the magnetic field is hardly intensity-dependent when the effect of electron-positron pair production is neglected.

Keywords: inverse Faraday effect, electron–positron pair production, particle-in-cell simulation.

Received: 18.06.2021

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 2021, 51:10, 861–865

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