The stopping at low (V < Vth) and high (V ≤ Vth) velocity, of N strongly correlated ion debris is investigated for the case of a dense and classical electron target. The considered topologies of cluster projectile charges are taken cubic like, and circular, respectively. A specific emphasis is given to the N-dependence, and also to the topological features of the corresponding enhanced correlated stopping.

A brief discussion of the standard theory of line broadening is presented together with an analysis of selected laser-driven implosion experiments. The effect of improved theoretical procedures on experimental analysis is discussed. In particular, we consider the combined effects of ion dynamics and opacity on line profiles used in the analysis of these plasmas. The experiments discussed were performed at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). The results presented in this paper illustrate the usefulness of plasma line broadening in diagnosing hot dense plasmas and in understanding fundamental plasma processes.

The single ionization and dissociation of ethanol molecules induced by low-energy electrons (E0 = 90 eV) are investigated using multiparticle coincident momentum spectroscopy. By detecting two outgoing electrons (e1 and e2) and one fragment ion in coincidence, we obtain the energy deposition (E0 − E1 − E2) during electron ionization of the molecule, i.e., the binding energy spectra, for production of the different ionic fragments C2H5OH+, C2H4OH+, COH+, and H3O+. These data allow us to study the ionization channels for different ionic products. In particular, we focus on H3O+ as a product of double hydrogen migration. It is found that this channel mainly originates from the ionization of outer-valance orbitals (3a″,10a′, 2a″, 9a′, 8a′, 1a″, and 7a′). Additionally, there are minor contributions from the inner-valence orbitals such as 6a′, 5a′, and 4a′. Quantum chemistry calculations show two fragmentation pathways: concerted and sequential processes for formation of H3O+.

The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is one of the most promising laser-based analytical techniques. Coincidentally, the LIBS acronym was proposed by Radziemski and Loree in two seminal papers published in 1981, almost at the same time in which the Laser and Particle Beams journal started its publication. In this contribution, the evolution of the LIBS technique is discussed following a chronological collection of key papers in LIBS, some of which were in fact published on LPB.

To accelerate high-intensity heavy-ion beams to high energy in the booster ring (BRing) at the High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) project, we take the typical reference particle 238U35+, which can be accelerated from an injection energy of 17 MeV/u to the maximal extraction energy of 830 MeV/u, as an example to study the basic processes of longitudinal beam dynamics, including beam capture, acceleration, and bunch merging. The voltage amplitude, the synchronous phase, and the frequency program of the RF system during the operational cycle were given, and the beam properties such as bunch length, momentum spread, longitudinal beam emittance, and beam loss were derived, firstly. Then, the beam properties under different voltage amplitude and synchronous phase errors were also studied, and the results were compared with the cases without any errors. Next, the beam properties with the injection energy fluctuation were also studied. The tolerances of the RF errors and injection energy fluctuation were dictated based on the CISP simulations. Finally, the effect of space charge at the low injection energy with different beam intensities on longitudinal emittance and beam loss was evaluated.

A two-dimensional simplified model of an HF chemical laser is introduced. Using an implicit finite difference scheme, the solution of two adjacent parallel streams with diffusion mixing and chemical reaction is generated. A contour of the mixing and reaction boundary is obtained without presupposition. The distribution of the HF(u) concentrations, gas temperature and the optical small signal gain (αu, J) on the flowing plane (X, Y) are presented. Compared with the solution solved directly from a set of Navier–Stokes equations, the results of these two methods agree with each other qualitatively. The influences of the different velocity, temperature (T0) and composition of the two streams on the small signal gain after the nozzle exit are investigated. It is interesting that for larger J with a fixed u, the peaks of αu, J—T0 profiles move towards higher T0. The computing method is simple and only a short computing time is needed.

The problem of heavy-ion beam energy conversion into the plasma self-radiation of the spherical target is considered by using the radiative conductivity approximation. It is shown that there is a single parameter γ which determines the spherical ‘corona’ structure and has the meaning of the ratio: the ion range/the effective heat range. The conversion coefficient increases with the increase in the parameter γ and becomes ∼ 1, when γ ≃ 102. Typical beam and target parameters of modern HIF designs correspond to γ ≃ 10 and conversion coefficients >50%. Thus, at quasistationary stage of the ‘corona’ expansion the target acceleration and implosion regime is basically the radiative one.

Numerical analyses show that a 40% mixing inhomogeneity of the deuterium (D) and tritium (T) concentrations in a DT pellet still gives a sufficient fusion energy output in DT inertial confinement fusion (ICF), as long as the D and T total amounts are equal. This new result means that fusion energy output is rather insensitive to the inhomogeneous fuel mixing in the DT ICF pellet.

A study of the effects of photoionization of a laser-produced plasma has been carried out by modeling the fluorescence of resonance lines due to cascades. The photoionization source is the X-ray M-band emission of a laser-produced high-Z plasma and it perturbs a ground state He-like aluminum plasma. Simulations have been performed to study the conditions necessary to maximize the fluorescence and guide future experiments. A collisional-radiative model is used to determine the optimal temperature and density of the pumped plasma, while hydrodynamic models are used to produce realistic plasma gradients and explore the optimum time delay of the photopumping.

The production of highly charged ions in a CO2 laser-generated plasma is compared for different laser pulse-time structures. The work was performed at the CERN Laser Ion Source, which has the aim of developing a high current, high charge-state ion source for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). When an intense laser pulse is focused onto a high-Z metal target, the ions expanding in the plasma plume are suitable for extraction from the plasma and matching into a synchrotron. For the first time, a comparison is made between free-running pulses with randomly fluctuating intensity, and mode-locked pulse trains with a reproducible structure and the same energy. Despite the lower power density with respect to the mode-locked pulse train, the free-running pulse provides higher charge states and higher yield.

Simulations of the interaction of very intense short pulse lasers with solid density plasmas have indicated that there may be very high magnetic fields and electron temperatures in the vicinity of the focal spot. We investigate the propagation of an incident electromagnetic wave under these conditions, both analytically and by means of a particle code, and show that the evanescence length of the wave field in a highly overdense plasma may be much greater than is usually supposed. This effect could be important in understanding the penetration of energy into the overdense region and the particle heating and acceleration which takes place there.

Intense laser light incident on solid targets has been shown to be a prolific source of harmonics. High harmonic intensities are characterized by a power-law spectrum Pm~m−p, where p denotes a spectral decay index and m is the harmonic number. Across a wide range of light intensity and target plasma density, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown p = 8/3, a value supported by the observation. However, the claim that this decay is universal has been contested and shown to break down in simulations when the incident light is P-polarized. Here weaker decays with p = 5/3 and at higher intensities p = 4/3 were observed. The distinction between the two regimes was attributed to the contribution to the spectrum from emission at the plasma frequency and its harmonics from Langmuir waves excited by the Brunel electrons generated when the incident light is P-polarized. In the present work, a single-particle model has been devised to lend support to a wide range of PIC data. The model incorporates a Langmuir electric field and is hybrid in the sense that we have made use of PIC output to guide our choice of field amplitudes in the Langmuir source. We find that the spectrum computed in this way shows generally satisfactory agreement with the corresponding PIC spectra, both in decay coefficient and spectral cut-off. At the highest intensities considered the emission from the convective bunching of electrons in high-amplitude Langmuir waves is itself superseded by Brunel electron bremsstrahlung and we have identified the regions of parameter space over which each of these sources is dominant. Interestingly, the same distinction has been drawn in a very different plasma regime where comparably complex spectra have been predicted in gamma-ray burst spectra from Langmuir turbulence produced in astrophysical jets.

In order to calculate more generally the space-charge limited current between two points of different voltage, modern differential geometrical methods are applied. This problem was first treated by Child (1911) and later by Langmuir (1913). It is possible, for example, to account for effects due to more than one charge component as well as the influence of a neutral background gas (which causes ionization and scattering of charge carriers). A systematic derivation of the self-consistent representation based on a Hamilton theory for density functions is given, and solution methods are discussed. The concept is designed to investigate ion and electron diodes with very intense currents, but it may also be useful for treating space charge problems in a stationary plasma.

This paper presents the results of laser-produced plasma investigations at an intensity of 1014W/cm2. Shadowgraphy, interferometry and second harmonic emission measurements were done to evaluate the main hydrodynamic parameters of the plasma.

We have developed medium and high resolution X-ray crystal spectrometers for measurements of charge state distributions of impurity ions, density of suprathermal electrons and ion temperature in magnetically confined plasmas. The techniques utilizing these spectrometers are, in principle, applicable to laser produced plasmas, especially in their expanding phase. The role of X-ray spectroscopy to produce useful data for atomic physics as well as for plasma diagnostics is emphasized. A beam-line has been designed and installed to the Ultraviolet Synchrotron Radiation Facility (UVSOR) at IMS, Okazaki, for the purpose of establishing calibration techniques for optical components, detectors and spectrometers in the range from ultraviolet to soft X ray for plasma diagnostics. Characteristics of the beam and its application to the study of interaction between synchrotron radiation and hot dense plasmas are described. Synchrotron radiation can replace the dye laser which has so far been used as a light source in the laser-induced fluorescence method to obtain population density of specified levels in a plasma.

A self-guided Gaussian laser pulse propagating in a non-uniform plasma channel is unstable to a plasma wave perturbation co-moving with the laser with its group velocity. The plasma wave amplitude has a maximum radial profile along the laser propagation axis. As the plasma wave propagates through a non-uniform plasma channel, the plasma wave perturbation causes focusing in the part of the laser that propagates with the electron density trough and defocusing in the part moving with the crest. This yields an axial gradient in the intensity of the laser and produces a ponderomotive force on the electrons. The ponderomotive force drives the plasma wave, which in turn makes the modulational instability grow. The growth rate of the modulational instability becomes larger with the increase in non-uniformity of a shallow plasma channel. In a deep cavitated plasma channel the growth rate of the modulational instability increases with the laser pulse amplitude.

The main goals of the German program are the study of key issues of inertial fusion with intense beams of heavy ions. The completion of the new heavy-ion synchrotron and storage ring facility SIS/ESR at GSI opens new directions for experimental investigations on beam dynamics at high intensity and on beam/target interaction. In addition, new accelerator scenarios will be investigated based on non-Liouvillean beam-handling techniques.

Space-resolved spectra of line-shaped laser-produced magnesium plasmas in the normal direction of the target have been obtained using a pinhole crystal spectrograph. These spectra are treated by a spectrum analyzing code for obtaining the true spectra and fine structures of overlapped lines. The spatial distributions of electron temperature and density along the normal direction of the target surface have been obtained with different spectral diagnostic techniques. Especially, the electron density plateaus beyond the critical surface in line-shaped magnesium plasmas have been obtained with a fitting technique applied to the Stark-broadened Ly-α wings of hydrogenic ions. The difference of plasma parameters between those obtained by different diagnostic techniques is discussed. Other phenomena, such as plasma satellites, population inversion, etc., which are observed in magnesium plasmas, are also presented.