This paper is devoted to the investigation of powerful laser pulse interaction with regularly and statistically volume-structured media with near critical average density and properties of laser-produced plasma of such a media. The results of the latest experiments on laser pulse interaction with plane foam targets performed on Nd-laser facilities “ABC” in the ENEA-EURATOM Association (Frascati, Italy) and “MISHEN” in the Troitsk Institute of Innovation Thermonuclear Investigations (TRINITI, Troitsk Russia), and J-laser “ISKRA-4” in the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF, Sarov, Russia) are presented and analyzed. High efficiency of the internal volume absorption of laser radiation in the foams of supercritical density was observed, and the dynamics of absorbing region formation and velocity of energy transfer process versus the parameters of porous matter are found. Some inertial confinement fusion (ICF) applications based on nonequilibrium properties of laser-produced plasma of a foam and regularly structured media such as the powerful neutron source with yield of 109–1011 DT-neutrons per 1 J of laser energy, laser-produced X-ray generation in high temperature supercritical plasma, and the compact ICF target absorbers providing effective smoothing and ablation are proposed.

Experiments to demonstrate the effects of various beam-smoothing techniques have been performed on the 60-beam, 30-kJ UV OMEGA laser system. These include direct measurements of the effect beam-smoothing techniques have on laser beam nonuniformity and on both planar and spherical targets. Demonstrated techniques include polarization smoothing and “dual-tripler” third-harmonic generation required for future broad bandwidth (∼1 THz) smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD). The effects of improvements in single-beam uniformity are clearly seen in the target-physics experiments, which also show the effect of the laser pulse shape on the efficacy of SSD smoothing. Saturation of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) growth of the broad-bandwidth features, in agreement with the Haan model (Haan, 1989), produced by laser imprinting has also been observed.

The hydrodynamics of plasma ablation and the thermalization process of the target interior core with the surrounding corona, formed by the uniform irradiation of intense ion beams over the spherical target are investigated in detail. Starting from the basic equations for the ion beam, the ion beam penetration depth is calculated and the self-regulation condition for the hot corona is applied to describe the process of core-corona coupling. The effects of ion beam energy, ion beam mass, and the target electron density on the ion beam penetration depth are studied. As the relevant calculations reveal, it is interesting to note the existence of an optimum value of ion beam energy for which the core-corona coupling attains maximum value, beyond which further increase of the ion beam energy leads to the formation of more tenuous corona only and the target interior core begins to decouple from the surrounding corona.

Experiments have been performed on the interaction physics of laser light with polystyrene and agar–agar foams having average densities higher than critical. The experiments have been performed at the ABC facility of the Associazione EURATOM-ENEA sulla Fusione, in Frascati. The main addressed topics have been energy coupling (balance), diffusion of energy into the target, plasma and dense phase dynamics, and harmonics generation. The laser light (λ = 1.054 μm) was focused by a F/1 lens to produce on the target surface about 1.6 × 1014 W/cm2 (≈1015 W/cm2 in the waist, set about 100 μm inside the target). Experiments have shown efficient energy coupling (>80%) to be attributed to cavity formation in the low density foam (efficient light absorption) and good mechanical coupling of the plasma trapped in the cavity to the dense phase (ablation pressure work). Heat diffusion possibly plays a transitory role in the initial stages of the interaction (300–500 ps). Time integrated harmonics measurements revealed a blue-shifted 2ω and a red-shifted 5/2ω.

We considered an ignition strategy based on energy injection in the final stages of the target implosion, but well before stagnation. The injected energy is used to set on a high adiabat the small portion of the fuel destined to become the ignition spark. Most of the energy needed to form the spark is provided by the work of the imploding target on the spark fuel. This approach is first introduced by a simple analytical model and then illustrated by 2D numerical calculations, in which the ignition of imploding cylinders by heavy ions is simulated. Different implosion designs and burn modes are presented and discussed. When compared with the standard central self-generated spark, or the fast ignition approaches, the ignition by entropy injection is potentially promising of some distinct advantages.

A two-stage model for achieving X-ray amplifying action on photoionized K-transitions pumped by the soft X-ray broadband flux from laser-produced plasma is treated. A simple pumping criterion is considered by the analysis of the positive gain-length product for the two-stage model of innershell transitions (0) → (3) and (2) → (1). The incident photon flux integrated over the effective lifetime T21 of an innershell transition (2) → (1) is related to the photoionization coefficient μ03(ph), stimulated emission cross section σ21(stim), and the effective gainlength L(eff) ≃ 0.63/μ03(abs), where μ03(abs) is the absorption coefficient of a pump soft X-ray radiation. Numerical estimates for the feasibility of K-shell X-ray amplification are given for C, F, Na, Ti, and Sn. For the example of an exponential X-ray carrier pulse (XCP) propagating through a resonant medium, an amplifying effect depending on the ratio of the input pulse temporal bandwidth τband to the effective lifetime T21 is investigated. It is shown that for an XCP with a finite bandwidth τband the logarithm of an energy gain, ln[U(z)], falls below a linear relation with z and thus, from the viewpoint of maximum amplifying effect bandwidths τband with τband/T21 > 1 are preferable. The requirements for achieving X-ray K-shell photoionization amplification for C are discussed in more detail. PACS numbers: 32.80.Hd, 42.50.Md, 42.55.Vc, 42.65.Re, 52.25.Nr.

This paper presents an investigation into the behavior of a laser beam of finite diameter in plasma with respect to forces and optical properties, which lead to self-focusing of the beam. The transient setting of ponderomotive nonlinearity in a collisionless plasma has been studied, and consequently the self-focusing of the pulse, and the focusing of the plasma wave occurs. The description of a self-focusing mechanism of laser radiation in the plasma due to nonlinear forces acting on the plasma in the lateral direction, relative to the laser has been investigated in the nonrelativistic regime. The behavior of the laser beams in plasma, which is the domain of self-focusing at high or moderate intensity, is dominated by the nonlinear force. The investigation of self-focusing processes of laser beams in plasma results from the relativistic mass and energy dependency of the refractive index at high laser intensities. Here, the relativistic effects are considered to evaluate the relativistic self-focusing lengths for the Nd glass radiation, at different plasma densities of various laser intensities. A numerical program in c++ that incorporates both the ponderomotive force in self-focusing mechanism and relativistic effects has been developed to explore in depth self-focusing over a wide range of parameters.

This paper presents a numerical and theoretical study of the generation and propagation of oscillation in the semiclassical limit τ → 0 of the nonlinear paraxial equation at laser–plasma interaction. In a general setting of both dimension and nonlinearity, the essential differences between the focusing and defocusing cases is identified due to the nonlinearity, and dispersion effects involved in the propagation of solitons at laser plasma interaction. A sequence of codes has been developed in mathematics to explore the focusing and defocusing of the soliton formation and propagation.

This paper considers various channels of electron–positron pair, neutron, and γ-quantum generation via the ultrashort high-power laser pulse interaction with targets made from different materials. The positron yields in materials with different Z are estimated for the positron production by high-speed electrons and γ-photons. It is shown that a picosecond 100-TW laser pulse gives rise to formation of about 1010 positrons, possible channels of the neutron production in light- and heavy-atom materials being studied as well. It is ascertained that the formation of up to 107 laser neutrons per shot is possible when the laser intensity is ∼1021 W/cm2 on a heavy-atom target.

The smoothing mechanism, that is due to the thermal conductivity in the laser plasma generated by a double pulse, is examined. Plasma preformed by a second harmonics prepulse serves as a low density gradient plasma for impacting the main pulse, the frequency of which was tripled for improving the laser-target coupling. The effect of the preformed plasma on the thermal smoothing of the heating pulse, which was split to create two foci on the target surface, was explored by varying the time delay between the prepulse and the main pulse. The smoothing effect was monitored by a pair of pinhole cameras: one viewing side-on and the other one placed at the rear side of the target. Spatially resolved X-ray emission spectra were recorded to determine the density and temperature distributions in the plasma. The maximum smoothing effect was observed for the time delay t = 0.4–0.7 ns.

A method for developing invariant equations of state (EOS) for which solutions of the Noh problem will exist is developed. The ideal gas EOS is shown to be a special case of the general method. Explicit solutions of the Noh problem in planar, cylindrical, and spherical geometry are determined for a Mie–Gruneisen and the stiff gas equation of state.

This paper presents an analysis of relativistic self-focusing of a Gaussian laser beam incident normally on a plane interface of a linear medium and a nonlinear, nonabsorbing plasma with an intensity dependent dielectric constant. Considering the nonlinearity to arise from the relativistic variation of mass and the Lorentz force on electrons. Following Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) and paraxial ray approximation the phenomenon of relativistic self-focusing of the transmitted laser radiation has been analyzed for the arbitrary magnitude of nonlinearity. Change in the intensity distribution along the wavefront of the Gaussian beam, due to refraction at the interface has also been taken into account. The variation of beamwidth parameter with distance of propagation, self trapping condition and critical power has been evaluated. Numerical estimates for typical parameters of laser plasma interaction process indicate the refraction at the interface to have a significant effect on self-focusing.

A high brightness laser-plasma X-ray source has been set-up and is presently available at IFAM. A wide range of diagnostics has been set up to monitor the properties of the X-ray radiation and to control the main parameters including photon energy, flux intensity, and pulse duration. A beam extractor enables access to the X-ray radiation at atmospheric pressure. A simple, easy-to-use projection microscope has been built which is capable of single-shot micron resolution imaging with digital acquisition. Preliminary biomedical experiments show that the X-ray doses available on a single laser shot exposure of our source fully meet the conditions required for an important class of biological experiments based on X-ray induced DNA damage providing an ideal alternative to the long time exposures needed with X-ray tubes.

It is important to ameliorate the early time imprinting of nonuniformities due to laser radiation or target shell surface in an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) scheme. However, they will not prevent the instabilities which originate at the ablation surface due to acceleration of high density plasma by low density plasma. One of the methods discussed here is to combat the growth of instabilities at the ablation surface. The present work is aimed to control growth of hydrodynamic instability in laser irradiated target at moderate intensities. Laser (λ = 1.06 μm) radiation was focused on the plastic (base) target seeded with microinclusions of Al and Au at various concentrations. Targets had planar geometry and were of few microns in thickness. The target stability was studied using the optical backlighting technique. Shadowgrams of the seeded targets show a uniform motion of the target rear, whereas pure plastic targets break up under identical conditions. Results are analyzed by considering the X-radiation transport, coherent structure effects of the plasma like vortices, self-generated magnetic field in the accelerated target, and nonlinear conversion of long wavelength perturbation into short wavelength perturbation.

Gamma emission spectra are investigated when excited-state nuclei in a static magnetic field interact with radio frequency (RF) radiation fields. The “dressed” state concept, developed in quantum electronics, is applied to this situation. The nuclear Zeeman levels are coupled by means of a quantized RF-radiation field. The total system consists of the nucleus, the static magnetic field, and the RF-radiation field. The energy levels and corresponding eigenstates of the system are calculated as a function of the frequency of the radiation field and the magnitude of the RF magnetic flux density. Emission spectra are calculated for the 57Fe case as a function of the frequency, the magnitude of the magnetic flux density of the RF-radiation field, as well as the photon emission direction.

Acceleration of electrons by lasers in a vacuum was considered impossible based on the fact that plane-wave and phase symmetric wave packets cannot transfer energy to electrons apart from Thomson or Compton scattering or the Kapitza–Dirac effect. The nonlinear nature of the electrodynamic forces of the fields to the electrons, expressed as nonlinear forces including ponderomotion or the Lorentz force, permits an energy transfer if the conditions of plane waves in favor of the beams and/or the phase symmetry are broken. The resulting electron acceleration by lasers in a vacuum is now well understood as “free wave acceleration”, as “ponderomotive scattering”, as “violent acceleration”, or as “vacuum beat wave acceleration”. The basic understanding of these phenomena relates to an accuracy principle of nonlinearity for explaining numerous discrepancies on the way to the mentioned achievement of “vacuum laser acceleration”, which goes beyond the well-known experience of necessary accuracy in both modeling and experimental work experiences among theorists and experimentalists in the field of nonlinearity. From mathematically designed beam conditions, an absolute maximum of electron energy per laser interaction has been established. It is shown here how numerical results strongly (both essentially and gradually) depend on the accuracy of the used laser fields for which examples are presented and finally tested by the criterion of the absolute maximum.

A high performance, fully controlled picosecond laser system has been designed and built with the aid of a numerical code capable of simulating the temporal behavior of the laser system, including each active and passive component. The laser performance was characterized with an optical streak camera, equivalent plane monitor, and calorimeter measurements. The laser pulse was focused on 150-nm thick foils to investigate plasma formation and the related transmittivity of the laser light. The experimental data are in very good agreement with the predictions of a simple, 2D analytical model that takes into account the actual shot-to-shot features of the laser pulse. The temporal profile of the pulse and the intensity distribution in the focal spot were found to play a key role in determining the transmission properties of the laser-irradiated foil. This work may be relevant to a wide class of laser exploded foil plasma experiments.

All of mankind, not only the readers of this Journal, is now fascinated by the laser. The process of many preceding physics discoveries beginning with Einstein (Zürich lecture, printed 1916, see A. Held, General Relativity and Gravitation One Hundred Years after the Birth of Einstein, Plenum, New York, 1980, Vol. 1, p. 17–21) and how this earth shattering discovery was not recognized by the giants in science is really a process of “how it happened” and the fact is: Charles Townes is its creator. Since there were some dark clouds through which this discovery of our century (next to the quantum theory and the theory of relativity) had to finally shine through, it is a revelation to now read what its creator has to say; modest, quiet, but true and fascinating.