New type of large-scale experiments for laboratory astrophysics with collimated jets of laser plasma in a transverse magnetic field

We report the results for the first complex experiment on the formation of an extended (up to ~0.5 m) plasma jet in a magnetic field (up to 300 G) in vacuum. The jet appears due to the injection of laser plasma bunches with a kinetic energy up to ~50 J across the magnetic field (in a solid angle Ω ≈ 1 sr) and a high degree of magnetisation of ions on the calculated scale field-induced deceleration of the bunch as a part of a sphere. A plastic target (polyethylene) has been irradiated by a CO₂ laser in the most energy-efficient regime (near the plasma formation threshold), implemented at the expense of a wide radiation spot (diameter 2–3 cm) on the target. In a new-type model Super-Jet experiment on a large KI-1 facility at the Institute of Laser Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (ILP SB RAS), the probe data on the internal structure and dynamics of plasma concentration and magnetic field strength in transverse jets, on the influence of instabilities and Hall effect have been obtained for the first time in laboratory modelling of space and astrophysical jets.