Computational model for relativistic electron beam - dense carbon plasma heating experiments

We report on results of the first measurements made on the interaction of a magnetized relativistic electron annular beam (Vb = 2.3 mV, Ib ≅ 70 kA) with a cold (Te < 1 eV) dense (nio ≅ 1018 cm-3) CO2-laser-produced carbon annular plasma. We also report on results from a computational model which is used to interpret the experimental data. We find that at peak electron temperature (Te ≅ 107 eV), beam energy deposition into electron thermal energy due to the two-stream instability is approximately 80% per cm. (orig.)