Time evolution of stimulated Raman scattering and two-plasmon decay at laser intensities relevant for shock ignition in a hot plasma

Year: 2019

Authors: Cristoforetti G., Antonelli L., Mancelli D., Atzeni S., Baffigi F., Barbato F., Batani D., Boutoux G., D’Amato F., Dostal J., Dudzak R., Filippov E., Gu Y.J., Juha L., Klimo O., Krus M., Malko S., Martynenko A.S., Nicolai Ph., Ospina V., Pikuz S., Renner O., Santos J., Tikhonchuk V.T., Trela J., Viciani S., Volpe L., Weber S., Gizzi L.A.

Autors Affiliation: CNR, Natl Inst Opt, Pisa, Italy; Univ York, York Plasma Phys Inst, York, N Yorkshire, England; Univ Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, CELIA, Talence, France; DIPC, Donostia San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain; Univ Roma La Sapienza, Dipartimento SBAI, Rome, Italy; Natl Res Nucl Univ MEPhI, Moscow, Russia; CEA, DAM, DIF, Arpajon, France; Inst Phys CAS, Dept Radiat & Chem Phys, Prague, Czech Republic; Inst Plasma Phys CAS, Laser Plasma Dept, Prague, Czech Republic; RAS, Joint Inst High Temp, Moscow, Russia; Inst Phys CAS, ELI Beamlines, Prague, Czech Republic; Czech Tech Univ, FNSPE, Prague, Czech Republic; Univ Salamanca, Ctr Lasere s Pulsados, Salamanca, Spain; Ctr Laseres Pulsados CLPU, Salamanca, Spain.

Abstract: Laser–plasma interaction (LPI) at intensities 10^15-10^16 W/cm^2 is dominated by parametric instabilities which can be responsible for a significant amount of non-collisional absorption and generate large fluxes of high-energy nonthermal electrons. Such a regime is of paramount importance for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and in particular for the shock ignition scheme. In this paper we report on an experiment carried out at the Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) facility to investigate the extent and time history of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and two-plasmon decay (TPD) instabilities, driven by the interaction of an infrared laser pulse at an intensity ~1.2×10^16 W/cm^2 with a μ scalelength plasma produced from irradiation of a flat plastic target. The laser pulse duration (300 ps) and the high value of plasma temperature (~4 keV) expected from hydrodynamic simulations make these results interesting for a deeper understanding of LPI in shock ignition conditions. Experimental results show that absolute TPD/SRS, driven at a quarter of the critical density, and convective SRS, driven at lower plasma densities, are well separated in time, with absolute instabilities driven at early times of interaction and convective backward SRS emerging at the laser peak and persisting all over the tail of the pulse. Side-scattering SRS, driven at low plasma densities, is also clearly observed. Experimental results are compared to fully kinetic large-scale, two-dimensional simulations. Particle-in-cell results, beyond reproducing the framework delineated by the experimental measurements, reveal the importance of filamentation instability in ruling the onset of SRS and stimulated Brillouin scattering instabilities and confirm the crucial role of collisionless absorption in the LPI energy balance.

Journal/Review: HIGH POWER LASER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Volume: 7      Pages from: e51-1  to: e51-14

More Information: We would like to acknowledge financial support from the LASERLAB-EUROPE Access to Research Infrastructure activity within the ECs seventh Framework Program. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No.633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. This work was partially supported by the project ELITAS (ELI Tools for Advanced Simulation) CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001793 and HIFI (High Field Initiative, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000449), ADONIS (Advanced research using high-intensity laser produced photons and particles, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000789), andELITAS (ELI Tools for Advanced Simulations, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001793), all from European Regional Development Fund. The Czech participants appreciate financial support from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports within grants LTT17015, LM2015083, and CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001552 (EF16_013/0001552). The work of JIHT RAS group was done in the frame of the state assignment of FASO of Russia (topic #01201357846). We acknowledge SciTech Precision and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Target Fabrication Group for the supplied targets. Finally, we thank the technical staff of PALS for help in running the experiments.
KeyWords: plasma simulations; shock ignition; stimulated Raman scattering; two-plasmon decay
DOI: 10.1017/hpl.2019.37

Citations: 37
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