Studies of ablated plasma and shocks produced in a planar target by a sub-nanosecond laser pulse of intensity relevant to shock ignition

Year: 2015

Authors: Badziak J., Antonelli L., Baffigi F., Batani D., Chodukowski T., Cristoforetti G., Dudzak R., Gizzi LA., Folpini G., Hall F., Kalinowska Z., Koester P., Krouski E., Kucharik M., Labate L., Liska R., Malka G., Maheut Y., Parys P., Pfeifer M., Pisarczyk T., Renner O., Rosinski M., Ryc L., Skala J., Smid M., Spindloe C., Ullschmied J., Zaras-Szydlowska A.

Autors Affiliation: Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, Warsaw, Poland; University of Roma \”Tor Vergata\”, Roma, Italy;
Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, Universite Bordeaux 1, Talence, France; Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory, INO-CNR, Pisa, Italy; Institute of Plasma Physics, Prague, Czech Republic; Scitech Precision, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK; Institute of Physics, Prague, Czech Republic; Czech Technical University, FNSPE, Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract: The effect of laser intensity on characteristics of the plasma ablated from a low-Z (CH) planar target irradiated by a 250 ps, 0.438 mu m laser pulse with the intensity of up to 10(16) W/cm(2) as well as on parameters of the laser-driven shock generated in the target for various scale-lengths of preformed plasma was investigated at the kilojoule Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) laser facility. Characteristics of the plasma were measured with the use of 3-frame interferometry, ion diagnostics, an X-ray spectrometer, and K imaging. Parameters of the shock generated in a Cl doped CH target by the intense 3 laser pulse were inferred by numerical hydrodynamic simulations from the measurements of craters produced by the shock in the massive Cu target behind the CH layer. It was found that the pressure of the shock generated in the plastic layer is relatively weakly influenced by the preplasma (the pressure drop due to the preplasma presence is similar to 10-20%) and at the pulse intensity of similar to 10(16) W/cm(2) the maximum pressure reaches similar to 80-90 Mbar. However, an increase in pressure of the shock with the laser intensity is slower than predicted by theory for a planar shock and the maximum pressure achieved in the experiment is by a factor of similar to 2 lower than predicted by the theory. Both at the preplasma absence and presence, the laser-to-hot electrons energy conversion efficiency is small, similar to 1% or below, and the influence of hot electrons on the generated shock is expected to be weak.

Journal/Review: LASER AND PARTICLE BEAMS

Volume: 33 (3)      Pages from: 561  to: 575

More Information: This work was supported in part by the Access to Research Infrastructure activity in the 7th Framework Program of the EU Contract No. 284464, Laserlab Europe III, by National Centre for Science (NCN), Poland under Grant No 2012/04/M/ST2/00452 and by the Italian MIUR project PRIN 2009FCC9MS. The participation of O. Renner and M. Smid in this research was supported by MSMT ELI Project No. CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0061.
KeyWords: Laser fusion; Laser-produced plasma; Plasma ablation; Shock ignition;
DOI: 10.1017/S0263034615000622

Citations: 8
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