Saturation mechanisms for the generated magnetic field in nonuniform laser-matter irradiation

Spontaneously generated magnetic fields B can be generated by nonuniform laser irradiation causing sources such as del T-e x del n(e)/n(e)e. By considering convective losses and dissipation including the triggering of lower hybrid drift turbulence a universal diagram of saturated B versus LI, the characteristic transverse settle length for the nonuniformity, is found, For LL less than the in collisionless skin depth c/omega(pi) the saturated B scales as L-perpendicular to(alpha) alpha less than or equal to 1. At higher L-perpendicular to values B scales as L-perpendicular to(-1) because convective losses dominate. For resistive plasmas (e.g., high Z low temperature) B will be limited to (mu(0)kT(e)/e eta)(L-perpendicular to/L-parallel to) where L-parallel to is n(e)/del n(e).