Fast electrons collimating and focusing by an ultraintense laser interacting with a high density layers

The use of a novel double-cone funnel target with high density layers (HDL) to collimate and focus electrons is investigated by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The proposed scheme can guide, collimate and focus electron beams to smaller sizes. The collimation reasons are analyzed by the quasi-static magnetic fields generation inside the beam collimator with HDL. It is found that the energy conversion efficiency is increased by a factor of 2.2 in this new scheme in comparison with the that without HDL. Such a target structure has potential for design flexibility and prevents inefficiencies in important applications such as fast ignition, etc. (paper)