Measurement of time-varying electron density of the plasma generated from a small-size cylindrical RDX explosion by Rayleigh microwave scattering

It is challenging to measure the electron density of the unsteady plasma formed by charged particles generated from explosions in the air,because it is transient and on a microsecond time scale.In this study,the time-varying electron density of the plasma generated from a small cylindrical cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine(RDX)explosion in air was measured,based on the principle of microwave Rayleigh scattering.It was found that the evolution of the electron density is related to the diffusion of the detonation products.The application of the Rayleigh microwave scattering principle is an attempt to estimate the electron density in explosively generated plasma.Using the equivalent radius and length of the detonation products in the bright areas of images taken by a high-speed framing camera,the electron density was determined to be of the order of 10^(20)m^(−3).The delay time between the initiation time and the start of variation in the electron-density curve was 2.77–6.93μs.In the time-varying Rayleigh microwave scattering signal curve of the explosively generated plasma,the electron density had two fluctuation processes.The durations of the first stage and the second stage were 11.32μs and 19.20μs,respectively.Both fluctuation processes increased rapidly to a peak value and then rapidly attenuated with time.This revealed the movement characteristics of the charged particles during the explosion.

Dense positrons and γ-rays generation by lasers interacting with convex target

We use quantum electrodynamics particle-in-cell simulation to study the generation of dense electron–positron plasma and strongγ-ray bursts in counter-propagating laser beam interactions with two different solid targets,i.e.planar(type I)and convex(type II).We find that type II limits fast electron flow most effectively.while the photon density is increased by about an order of magnitude and energy by approx.10%–20%compared with those in type I target.γ-photon source with an ultrahigh peak brilliance of 2?×?1025 photons/s/mm2/mrad2/0.1%BW is generated by nonlinear Compton scattering process.Furthermore,use of type II target increases the positron density and energy by 3 times and 32%respectively,compared with those in type I target.In addition,the conversion efficiencies of total laser energy toγ-rays and positrons of type II are improved by 13.2%and 9.86%compared with type I.Such improvements in conversion efficiency and positron density are envisaged to have practical applications in experimental field.

Theoretical modeling and numerical simulations of plasmas generated by shock waves

Electromagnetic(EM) field is a consequence of the plasma generation induced by shock waves generated in impacts and explosions and is an important topic of study in aerospace and geophysics. Experimental research is frequently used to investigate the plasma generation in hypervelocity impacts and the EM wave emitted in chemical explosions. However, the basic plasma generation mechanism leading to the EM emission generated by the shock waves in chemical explosions is rarely studied.Therefore, a detailed investigation is performed to determine the state of the plasmas generated by the shock waves in air blast. In addition, a multi-component ionization model was improved to evaluate the ionization state of the generated plasmas. The proposed ionization model was combined with an AUSM+-up based finite volume method(FVM) to simulate the plasmas generated in the air blast. Two typical cases of simulation were carried out to investigate the relation between the shock waves and ionization, as well as the influence of ground reflection on the ionization state. It was found that the ionization zone was close behind the shock front in the air and propagates along with the shock waves. The interaction between the original shock waves and reflected shock waves was found to have a great impact of the order of 2–3 magnitudes, on the degree of ionization of the plasmas generated by the shock waves. This phenomenon explains the observation of additional EM pulses generated by ground reflection, as explored in the reference cited in this paper.