Recent experiments at the National Ignition Facility and theoretical modeling suggest that side stimulated Raman scattering(SSRS)instability could reduce laser–plasma coupling and generate considerable fluxes of supr...Recent experiments at the National Ignition Facility and theoretical modeling suggest that side stimulated Raman scattering(SSRS)instability could reduce laser–plasma coupling and generate considerable fluxes of suprathermal hot electrons under interaction conditions envisaged for direct-drive schemes for inertial confinement fusion.Nonetheless,SSRS remains to date one of the least understood parametric instabilities.Here,we report the first angularly and spectrally resolved measurements of scattered light at laser intensities relevant for the shock ignition scheme(I×10^(16)W/cm^(2)),showing significant SSRS growth in the direction perpendicular to the laser polarization.Modification of the focal spot shape and orientation,obtained by using two different random phase plates,and of the density gradient of the plasma,by utilizing exploding foil targets of different thicknesses,clearly reveals a different dependence of backward SRS(BSRS)and SSRS on experimental parameters.While convective BSRS scales with plasma density scale length,as expected by linear theory,the growth of SSRS depends on the spot extension in the direction perpendicular to laser polarization.Our analysis therefore demonstrates that under current experimental conditions,with density scale lengths L_(n)≈60–120μm and spot sizes FWHM≈40–100μm,SSRS is limited by laser beam size rather than by the density scale length of the plasma.展开更多
Proton generation,transport and interaction with hollow cone targets are investigated by means of two-dimensional PIC simulations.A scaled-down hollow cone with gold walls,a carbon tip and a curved hydrogen foil insid...Proton generation,transport and interaction with hollow cone targets are investigated by means of two-dimensional PIC simulations.A scaled-down hollow cone with gold walls,a carbon tip and a curved hydrogen foil inside the cone has been considered.Proton acceleration is driven by a 10^(20) W·cm^(-2) and 1 ps laser pulse focused on the hydrogen foil.Simulations show an important surface current at the cone walls which generates a magnetic field.This magnetic field is dragged by the quasi-neutral plasma formed by fast protons and co-moving electrons when they propagate towards the cone tip.As a result,a tens of kT B z field is set up at the cone tip,which is strong enough to deflect the protons and increase the beam divergence substantially.We propose using heavy materials at the cone tip and increasing the laser intensity in order to mitigate magnetic field generation and proton beam divergence.展开更多
基金financial support from the LASERLAB-EUROPE Access to Research Infrastructure Activity (Application No. 23068)carried out within the framework of EUROfusion Enabling Research Projects AWP21-ENR-01-CEA02 and AWP24-ENR-IFE-02-CEA-02+3 种基金received funding from Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021–2025 under Grant No. 633053supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic [Project No. LM2023068 (PALS RI)]by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. XDA25030200 and XDA25010100)supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) through Action CA21128 PROBONO (PROton BOron Nuclear Fusion: from energy production to medical applicatiOns)
文摘Recent experiments at the National Ignition Facility and theoretical modeling suggest that side stimulated Raman scattering(SSRS)instability could reduce laser–plasma coupling and generate considerable fluxes of suprathermal hot electrons under interaction conditions envisaged for direct-drive schemes for inertial confinement fusion.Nonetheless,SSRS remains to date one of the least understood parametric instabilities.Here,we report the first angularly and spectrally resolved measurements of scattered light at laser intensities relevant for the shock ignition scheme(I×10^(16)W/cm^(2)),showing significant SSRS growth in the direction perpendicular to the laser polarization.Modification of the focal spot shape and orientation,obtained by using two different random phase plates,and of the density gradient of the plasma,by utilizing exploding foil targets of different thicknesses,clearly reveals a different dependence of backward SRS(BSRS)and SSRS on experimental parameters.While convective BSRS scales with plasma density scale length,as expected by linear theory,the growth of SSRS depends on the spot extension in the direction perpendicular to laser polarization.Our analysis therefore demonstrates that under current experimental conditions,with density scale lengths L_(n)≈60–120μm and spot sizes FWHM≈40–100μm,SSRS is limited by laser beam size rather than by the density scale length of the plasma.
基金This work has been partially supported by the grant numberENE2014-54960-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy andCompetitivenessthe COST Action MP1208 and the Co-ordinated Research Project of IAEA F13016.
文摘Proton generation,transport and interaction with hollow cone targets are investigated by means of two-dimensional PIC simulations.A scaled-down hollow cone with gold walls,a carbon tip and a curved hydrogen foil inside the cone has been considered.Proton acceleration is driven by a 10^(20) W·cm^(-2) and 1 ps laser pulse focused on the hydrogen foil.Simulations show an important surface current at the cone walls which generates a magnetic field.This magnetic field is dragged by the quasi-neutral plasma formed by fast protons and co-moving electrons when they propagate towards the cone tip.As a result,a tens of kT B z field is set up at the cone tip,which is strong enough to deflect the protons and increase the beam divergence substantially.We propose using heavy materials at the cone tip and increasing the laser intensity in order to mitigate magnetic field generation and proton beam divergence.
