Resistive Collimation of Electron Beams in Laser-Produced Plasmas

Abstract

Intense relativistic electron beams, produced by high-intensity short-pulse laser irradiation of a solid target, have many potential applications including fusion by fast ignition. Using a unique Fokker-Planck code, supported by analytic calculations, we show that fast electrons can be collimated into a beam even when the fast electron source is not strongly anisotropic, and we derive a condition for collimation to occur.