Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental energy converting process that occurs in space and laboratory plasma. Generally, magnetic reconnection involves both ion dynamics and electron dynamics. Recently, a new type of magnetic reconnection has been discovered in the Earth's turbulent magnetosheath and magnetotail, which is called electron-only reconnection. In electron-only reconnection, only electron outflow is observed since there is no time and/or space for ions to couple. In this study, we create the electron-only reconnection in the laboratory via laser-plasma interaction, and investigate the energy conversion during reconnection in detail. We find that both the spatial and temporal scale of the reconnection is within the electron scale. During magnetic reconnection, energy is transferred from the electromagnetic fields to the electrons, mainly occurring near the X-line. The reconnection electric field plays a crucial role in energy conversion. This study improves our understanding of how energy is converted to electrons in electron-only reconnection.
 

magnetic reconnection