Magnetohydrodynamics of laser-produced high-energy-density plasma in a strong external magnetic field.

Recent progress in the generation in the laboratory of a strong (>100-T) magnetic field enables us to investigate experimentally unexplored magnetohydrodynamics phenomena of a high-energy-density plasma, which an external magnetic field of 200-300 T notably affects due to anisotropic thermal conduction, even when the magnetic field pressure is much lower than the plasma pressure. The external magnetic field reduces electron thermal conduction across the external magnetic field lines because the Larmor radius of the thermal electrons in the external magnetic field is much shorter than the mean free path of the thermal electrons. The velocity of a thin polystyrene foil driven by intense laser beams in the strong external magnetic field is faster than that in the absence of the external magnetic field. Growth of sinusoidal corrugation imposed initially on the laser-driven polystyrene surface is enhanced by the external magnetic field because the plasma pressure distribution becomes nonuniform due to the external magnetic-field structure modulated by the perturbed plasma flow ablated from the corrugated surface.