We report and discuss experimental results on the propagation of CPA pulses of moderately relativistic intensity in gas: they evidence the effects of the precursor pedestals of the main pulse. Details of great interest were observed for the first time with high quality femtosecond 90-degree interferometry. The interferometric data are also correlated with imaging and spectroscopy data of laser pulse transmitted through the gas. The most relevant physical features are confirmed by a numerical code which simulates the laser pulse propagation self-consistently with the ionization of the gas. We found that in this regime, the propagation of the intense femtosecond pulse is basically stable apart from very weak refractive effects. In order to allow propagation at fixed intensity along an optical path larger than the Rayleigh range, we performed a first successful attempt at producing hollow plasma channels able to guide the pulse.

This paper presents numerical simulations of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic response for solid targets that are irradiated with strongly bunched, highly focused, intense beams of energetic uranium ions. The main purpose of this work is to study the behavior of thermal stress waves induced in such targets by the incident ion beam. These theoretical studies will complement the experimental investigations that will be carried out in the near future at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) plasma physics experimental area. These experiments will be performed using the existing heavy ion synchrotron, SIS18, which delivers 4 × 109 uranium ions in a single bunch with a length of about 125 ns. Other time structures, for example, a pulse that consists of a series of bunches, are also possible. The particle energy is on the order of 400 MeV/u and the beam can be focused to sub millimeter radius. This information concerning material response under intense beam loading will have important implications on designing a viable production target for the superconducting fragment separator, Super-FRS, which is going to be constructed at the future facility for antiproton and ion research (FAIR), Darmstadt, Germany, for the production and separation of exotic nuclei.

This paper examines the necessity of including ion viscosity in modeling laser fusion implosions. Using the Naval Research Laboratory one-half Mega Joule laser fusion target as an example, it is shown that for virtually the entire implosion up to maximum compression, and the entire rebound after the implosion, ion viscosity is unimportant. However for about half a nanosecond before peak implosion, ion viscosity can have a significant, but by no means dominant effect on both the one-dimensional flow and on the Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

Intense laser-beam interactions with preformed plasma, preceding the laser-target interactions, significantly influence both the ion and X-ray generation. It is due to the laser pulse (its total length, the shape of the front edge, its background, the contrast, the radial homogeneity) as well as plasma (density, temperature) properties. Generation of the super fast (FF) ion groups is connected with a presence of non-linear processes. Saturated maximum of the charge states (independently on the laser intensity) is ascribed to the constant limit radius of the self-focused laser beam. Its longitudinal structure is considered as a possible explanation for the course of some experimental dependencies obtained.

Nitrogen lasers have been used for many years to make dye solutions lase. A nitrogen laser, which transverse electrical discharge in gas at atmospheric pressure has been built in our laboratory. It has been characterized and applied to pump different dyes: Rhodamine 6G, Coumarin 440, DOTCI, and pyranine in simple “on axis” geometric configuration. It has been shown that pyranine can lase in the absence of any optical external mirror cavity, this happens at very low threshold, and in different solvents. Dyes under consideration can be grouped into two major classes according to their lasing behavior independently on their concentration in the solvent: Rhodamine 6G and DOTCI can lase both axially or transversally and Coumarin 440 and pyranine can lase only axially. Other intriguing features have been observed that span from simultaneous multiple beam generation, to super fluorescence and to distribute axial pumping of dye solutions. A preliminary basis for understanding and controlling such processes is the spatial energy distribution and the energy density of the beam.

Results of theoretical calculations and experimental measurements of the equation of state (EOS) at extreme conditions are discussed and applied to aluminum. It is pointed out that the available high pressure and temperature information covers a broad range of the phase diagram, but only irregularly and, as a rule, is not thermodynamically complete; its generalization can be done only in the form of a thermodynamically complete EOS. A multi-phase EOS model is presented, accounting for solid, liquid, gas, and plasma states, as well as two-phase regions of melting and evaporation. The thermodynamic properties of aluminum and its phase diagram are calculated with the use of this model. Theoretical calculations of thermodynamic properties of the solid, liquid, and plasma phases, and of the critical point, are compared with results of static and dynamic experiments. The analysis deals with thermodynamic properties of solid aluminum at T = 0 and 298 K from different band-structure theories, static compression experiments in diamond anvil cells, and the information obtained in isentropic-compression and shock-wave experiments. Thermodynamic data in the liquid state, resulting from traditional thermophysical measurements, “exploding wire” experiments, and evaluations of the critical point are presented. Numerous shock-wave experiments for aluminum have been done to measure shock adiabats of crystal and porous samples, release isentropes, and sound speed in shocked metal. These data are analyzed in a self-consistent manner together with all other available data at high pressure.

The model's results are shown for the principal shock adiabat, the high-pressure melting and evaporation regions and the critical point of aluminum. New experimental and theoretical data helped to improve the description of the high-pressure, high-temperature aluminum liquid. The present EOS describes with high accuracy and reliability the complete set of available information.

The inertial confinement fusion (ICF) philosophy is based on high compression. The reasoning is that (a) it is cheaper (energetically) to compress than to heat and (b) nuclear reactions are proportional to density square, therefore the more you compress the better you are in ICF. Of course the only limitations of compression are the hydrodynamic instabilities (like Rayleigh-Taylor, etc). Many of the references in the literature require extremely high compression and in particular the pB11 needs extremely huge compressions. In this paper it is shown that there is an optimum of compression, namely gain G is maximum for a definite compression. The value of this density (for a given fuel mass and particular ICF scheme) depends on the equation of state (EOS). We calculate this value for fast ignition (FI) schemes and compare it with the central spark ignition (CSI) model. The gain calculations are based on the ideal gas for the ions and the Fermi-Dirac EOS for the electrons with an effective alpha, as usually suggested from simulations. The “optimum compression” idea is easily understood from the following argument: From EOS data one needs an infinite energy to compress to an infinite density. Since the energy output is finite it is clear that G is zero for infinite compression. On the other hand for normal density with small fuel mass (~ few mg) the gain is also zero. Therefore a maximum should exist somewhere. For the deuterium-tritium fuel with a mass of few mg one gets an optimum at few hundred g/cc. If you compress more then the gain is going down. So there is a desired maximum compression fixed by EOS. Last but not least, bremsstrahlung losses in degenerate plasma are discussed and the clean fusion (i.e., without neutrons) of proton + B11 → 4α is analyzed.

An electron-beam accelerator based on spiral water pulse forming line which consists of a primary storage capacitor system, an air core spiral strip transformer, a spiral pulse forming line of water dielectric, and a field-emission diode, is described. The experimental results showed that the diode voltage is more than 500 kV, the electron beam current of diode is about 24 kA, and the pulse duration is about 200 ns. The main parameters of the accelerator were calculated theoretically. The distributions for electrical field in the pulse forming line were obtained by the simulations. In addition, the process of the accelerator charging a spiral pulse forming line was simulated through the Pspice software to get the waveforms of charging voltage of pulse forming line, the diode voltage and diode current of accelerator. The theoretical and simulated results agree with the experimental results. This accelerator is very compact and works stably and reliably.

The dependence of calcium ion subshell populations on the target density during the ion stopping process was analyzed using a five charge-state collisional-radiative model. The model, which consists of the ground and three excited states for every ion charge, was successfully compared with the experiment. The gas-solid difference of calcium ion charge state distribution has been numerically demonstrated. For Ca projectiles with energies of 4–11 MeV/u, the increase of the mean ion charge in solid target is explained by the increase of the total ionization rate and by suppression of the bound electron capture process at high densities of the stopping medium.

Saturation effects in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in water for elemental analysis have been investigated. Existing theoretical model of laser-induced plasma in solids has been applied to liquid phase under some simplifying assumptions to take account of the laser pulse energy dependence of atomic emissions from Na and Cu in aqueous solution. The theory was found to explain the emission process for laser energies up to but below the saturation level. The saturation limit of the emission with laser pulse energy corresponds well with that of the plasma temperature deduced from blackbody emission considerations. The saturation energies for atomic emissions were found to be lower for bulk excitations compared to water jet excitations. The dependence of signal strength on sample concentration indicated that the concentration values at saturation are lower at higher laser energies, as is expected from the theoretical model.

In fast ignition research, the clarification of core heating mechanism is one of the most critical issues. To understand and identify the crucial physics in fast heating, we developed the fast ignition integrated interconnecting code FI3 and carried out the core heating simulations for fast heating experiments with cone-guided targets. It was found that the scale length of the pre-plasma at the inner-surface of the cone and the density gap at the contact surface between the cone tip and the imploded core plasma strongly affect the efficiency of core heating. In the case of heating laser with intensity of 1020 W/cm2 and duration of 1 ps, the pre-plasma scale length of 1.5 µm is optimum for the core heating; the dense core is heated up to 0.86 keV. In the double scale length case (long scale of ~5 µm in underdense region and short scale of ~ 1 µm in overdense region), of which generation due to the pre-pulse irradiation of heating pulse is observed at the radiation–hydro simulations, the dense core is heated more efficiently than single short scale length cases. The contribution of fast ions to the core heating is also discussed.

Self-trapping, stopping, and absorption of an ultrashort ultraintense linearly polarized laser pulse in a finite plasma slab of near-critical density is investigated by particle-in-cell simulation. As in the underdense plasma, an electron cavity is created by the pressure of the transmitted part of the light pulse and it traps the latter. Since the background plasma is at near-critical density, no wake plasma oscillation is created. The propagating self-trapped light rapidly comes to a stop inside the slab. Subsequent ion Coulomb explosion of the stopped cavity leads to explosive expulsion of its ions and formation of an extended channel having extremely low plasma density. The energetic Coulomb-exploded ions form shock layers of high density and temperature at the channel boundary. In contrast to a propagating pulse in a lower density plasma, here the energy of the trapped light is deposited onto a stationary and highly localized region of the plasma. This highly localized energy-deposition process can be relevant to the fast ignition scheme of inertial fusion.

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) will serve as an injector to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN as well as it is used to accelerate and extract proton beams for fixed target experiments. In either case, safety of operation is a very important issue that needs to be carefully addressed. This paper presents detailed numerical simulations of the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic response of solid targets made of copper and tungsten that experience impact of a full SPS beam comprized of 288 bunches of 450 GeV/c protons. These simulations have shown that the material will be seriously damaged if such an accident happens. An interesting outcome of this work is that the SPS can be used to carry out dedicated experiments to study High Energy Density (HED) states in matter.

In this paper, we describe the experimental validation of the technique of correction of wavefront aberration in the middle of the laser amplifying chain. This technique allows the correction of the aberrations from the first part of the laser system, and the pre-compensation of the aberrations built in the second part. This approach will allow an effective aberration management in the laser chain, to protect the optical surfaces and optimize performances, and is the only possible approach for multi-petawatt laser system from the technical and economical point of view. This approach is now possible after the introduction of new deformable mirrors with lower static aberrations and higher dynamic than the standard devices.