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
Driving of the nuclear fusion reaction p+^(11)B3α+8.7 MeV under laboratory conditions by interaction between high-power laser pulses and matter has become a popular field of research,owing to its numerous potential a...Driving of the nuclear fusion reaction p+^(11)B3α+8.7 MeV under laboratory conditions by interaction between high-power laser pulses and matter has become a popular field of research,owing to its numerous potential applications:as an alternative to deuterium-tritium for fusion energy production,astrophysics studies,and alpha-particle generation for medical treatment.One possible scheme for laser-driven p-^(11)B reactions is to direct a beam of laser-accelerated protons onto a boron(B)sample(the so-called“pitcher-catcher”scheme).This technique has been successfully implemented on large high-energy lasers,yielding hundreds of joules per shot at low repetition.We present here a complementary approach,exploiting the high repetition rate of the VEGA III petawatt laser at CLPU(Spain),aiming at accumulating results from many interactions at much lower energy,to provide better control of the parameters and the statistics of the measurements.Despite a moderate energy per pulse,our experiment allowed exploration of the laser-driven fusion process with tens(up to hundreds)of laser shots.The experiment provided a clear signature of the reactions involved and of the fusion products,accumulated over many shots,leading to an improved optimization of the diagnostics for experimental campaigns of this type.In this paper,we discuss the effectiveness of laser-driven p-11B fusion in the pitcher-catcher scheme,at a high repetition rate,addressing the challenges of this experimental scheme and highlighting its critical aspects.Our proposed methodology allows evaluation of the performance of this scheme for laser-driven alpha particle production and can be adapted to high-repetition-rate laser facilities with higher energy and intensity.展开更多
The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometer...The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometers.Protons with energies of tens of MeV can be accelerated using,for instance,target normal sheath acceleration and focused on secondary targets.Under such conditions,nuclear reactions can occur,with the production of radioisotopes suitable for medical application.The use of high-repetition lasers to produce such isotopes is competitive with conventional methods mostly based on accelerators.In this paper,we study the production of^(67)Cu,^(63)Zn,^(18)F,and^(11)C,which are currently used in positron emission tomography and other applications.At the same time,we study the reactions^(10)B(p,α)^(7)Be and^(70)Zn(p,4n)^(67)Ga to put further constraints on the proton distributions at different angles,as well as the reaction^(11)B(p,α)^(8)Be relevant for energy production.The experiment was performed at the 1 PW laser facility at VegaⅢin Salamanca,Spain.Angular distributions of radioisotopes in the forward(with respect to the laser direction)and backward directions were measured using a high purity germanium detector.Our results are in reasonable agreement with numerical estimates obtained following the approach of Kimura and Bonasera[Nucl.Instrum.Methods Phys.Res.,Sect.A 637,164–170(2011)].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funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Program(Grant Agreement No.101052200-EUROfusion)funding from LASERLAB-EUROPE(Grant Agreement No.871124,European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program)+5 种基金supported in part by the United States Department of Energy under Grant No.DE-FG02-93ER40773We also acknowledge support from Grant No.PID2021-125389OA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER,UEby“ERDF A Way of Making Europe”by the European Union and Unidad de Investigación Consolidada of Junta de Castilla y León UIC 167supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.12375125the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universitiesthe support of the Czech Science Foundation through Grant No.GACR24-11398S.
文摘Driving of the nuclear fusion reaction p+^(11)B3α+8.7 MeV under laboratory conditions by interaction between high-power laser pulses and matter has become a popular field of research,owing to its numerous potential applications:as an alternative to deuterium-tritium for fusion energy production,astrophysics studies,and alpha-particle generation for medical treatment.One possible scheme for laser-driven p-^(11)B reactions is to direct a beam of laser-accelerated protons onto a boron(B)sample(the so-called“pitcher-catcher”scheme).This technique has been successfully implemented on large high-energy lasers,yielding hundreds of joules per shot at low repetition.We present here a complementary approach,exploiting the high repetition rate of the VEGA III petawatt laser at CLPU(Spain),aiming at accumulating results from many interactions at much lower energy,to provide better control of the parameters and the statistics of the measurements.Despite a moderate energy per pulse,our experiment allowed exploration of the laser-driven fusion process with tens(up to hundreds)of laser shots.The experiment provided a clear signature of the reactions involved and of the fusion products,accumulated over many shots,leading to an improved optimization of the diagnostics for experimental campaigns of this type.In this paper,we discuss the effectiveness of laser-driven p-11B fusion in the pitcher-catcher scheme,at a high repetition rate,addressing the challenges of this experimental scheme and highlighting its critical aspects.Our proposed methodology allows evaluation of the performance of this scheme for laser-driven alpha particle production and can be adapted to high-repetition-rate laser facilities with higher energy and intensity.
文摘The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometers.Protons with energies of tens of MeV can be accelerated using,for instance,target normal sheath acceleration and focused on secondary targets.Under such conditions,nuclear reactions can occur,with the production of radioisotopes suitable for medical application.The use of high-repetition lasers to produce such isotopes is competitive with conventional methods mostly based on accelerators.In this paper,we study the production of^(67)Cu,^(63)Zn,^(18)F,and^(11)C,which are currently used in positron emission tomography and other applications.At the same time,we study the reactions^(10)B(p,α)^(7)Be and^(70)Zn(p,4n)^(67)Ga to put further constraints on the proton distributions at different angles,as well as the reaction^(11)B(p,α)^(8)Be relevant for energy production.The experiment was performed at the 1 PW laser facility at VegaⅢin Salamanca,Spain.Angular distributions of radioisotopes in the forward(with respect to the laser direction)and backward directions were measured using a high purity germanium detector.Our results are in reasonable agreement with numerical estimates obtained following the approach of Kimura and Bonasera[Nucl.Instrum.Methods Phys.Res.,Sect.A 637,164–170(2011)].
