Field Compressing Magnetothermal Instability in Laser Plasmas

Bissell, J.J.; Ridgers, C.P.; Kingham, R.J.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.105.175001

Field Compressing Magnetothermal Instability in Laser Plasmas

Bissell, J.J.; Ridgers, C.P.; Kingham, R.J.

Authors

J.J. Bissell

C.P. Ridgers

R.J. Kingham

Abstract

The mechanism for a new instability in magnetized plasmas is presented and a dispersion relation derived. Unstable behavior is shown to result purely from transport processes—feedback between the Nernst effect and the Righi-Leduc heat-flow phenomena in particular—neither hydrodynamic motion nor density gradients are required. Calculations based on a recent nanosecond laser gas-jet experiment [ D. H. Froula et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 135001 (2007)] predict growth of magnetic field and temperature perturbations with typical wavelengths of order 50 μm and characteristic growth times of ∼0.1 ns. The instability yields propagating magnetothermal waves whose direction depends on the magnitude of the Hall parameter.

Citation

Bissell, J., Ridgers, C., & Kingham, R. (2010). Field Compressing Magnetothermal Instability in Laser Plasmas. Physical Review Letters, 105(17), Article 175001. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.105.175001

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Oct 18, 2010
Deposit Date	Feb 6, 2012
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN	0031-9007
Electronic ISSN	1079-7114
Publisher	American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	105
Issue	17
Article Number	175001
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.105.175001