X-ray imaging and electron temperature evolution in laser-driven magnetic reconnection experiments at the National Ignition Facility
arXiv:2404.07799 · doi:10.1063/5.0213598
Abstract
We present results from X-ray imaging of high-aspect-ratio magnetic reconnection experiments driven at the National Ignition Facility. Two parallel, self-magnetized, elongated laser-driven plumes are produced by tiling 40 laser beams. A magnetic reconnection layer is formed by the collision of the plumes. A gated X-ray framing pinhole camera with micro-channel plate (MCP) detector produces multiple images through various filters of the formation and evolution of both the plumes and current sheet. As the diagnostic integrates plasma self-emission along the line of sight, 2-dimensional electron temperature maps are constructed by taking the ratio of intensity of these images obtained with different filters. The plumes have a characteristic temperature eV at 2 ns after the initial laser irradiation and exhibit a slow cooling up to 4 ns. The reconnection layer forms at 3 ns with a temperature eV as the result of the collision of the plumes. The error bars of the plumes and current sheet temperatures separate at ns, showing the heating of the current sheet from colder inflows. Using a semi-analytical model, we find that the observed heating of the current sheet is consistent with being produced by electron-ion drag, rather than the conversion of magnetic to kinetic energy.
Submitted to Physics of Plasmas. 19 pages (total), 14 figures, 2 tables
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