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Direct observation of saturated heat-flux inhibition by magnetic fields in laser-produced plasmas

A. Triantafyllidis1,*,†, J.-R. Marquès1, P. Loiseau2,3, C. Vlachos4, J. J. Santos4, J. Béard5, J.-M. Lagarrigue5, L. Lancia1, N. Ozaki6,7 et al.

M. Koenig1 and B. Albertazzi1,‡

  • *Present address: Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
  • †Contact author: angelos@eie.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp
  • ‡Contact author: bruno.albertazzi@polytechnique.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043011 – Published 5 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2rqf-hq77

Abstract

We report direct measurements of magnetically inhibited heat transport in an underdense laser-produced plasma subjected to externally applied magnetic fields of up to 20 T. Spatially and temporally resolved Thomson-scattering data show that the peak electron temperature increases by a factor ∼1.4 relative to the unmagnetized case, as cross-field thermal conduction is maximally suppressed. This state is observed for B≥10 T and is sustained over ∼0.5 ns. The subsequent temperature decrease is primarily driven by a reduction in inverse-bremsstrahlung heating as the electron density cavitates. Our experimental results are consistent with simple analytical estimates and are corroborated by Vlasov-Fokker-Planck simulations, suggesting that the plasma reaches the maximum temperature gain for an electron Hall parameter χHall≳50 (Te∼800 eV, ne∼3×1019 cm−3). These findings demonstrate that effective magnetothermal insulation can occur in magnetized inertial confinement fusion schemes without the need for extremely large magnetic fields.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043011– Published 5 October, 2026
  • Received 16 March 2026
  • Accepted 2 September 2026
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