Interaction of a Nd:YAG laser, operating at wavelengths of 1064 nm (23.6 J cm−2 fluence) or 532 nm (25.9 J cm−2 fluence), and pulse duration of 40 ps, with a titanium-based medical implant Ti6Al4V alloy was studied. Surface damage thresholds were estimated to be 0.9 J cm−2 and 0.25 J cm−2 at laser wavelengths 1064 nm and 532 nm, respectively. At both laser wavelengths, the energy absorbed was mostly converted into thermal energy, forming craters, albeit about 50 times deeper at 1064 nm than at 532 nm. Periodic surface structures (PSS) were also formed with both laser wavelengths, concentric, and radial at micrometer scale (3 µm to 15 µm period), parallel at nanometer scale (800 nm period with the 1064 nm laser, 400 nm with the 532 nm laser). In the case of the 532 nm laser, the concentric structures enlarge their period with accumulating laser pulse count. These features can help roughening of the implant surface and improve bio-compatibility.

Magnetohydrodynamic simulation results related to the capillary discharge dynamics are presented. The main physical process that should be taken into account is the ablation of the capillary wall material evaporated by the heat flux from the capillary plasma. The possible applications of the capillary discharges related to the physics of the X-ray lasers and the use of the capillary plasma to provide a guiding for ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses over a distance greater than the defocusing length are discussed.

Experiments on laser ablation of metals in air, in vacuum, and in similar irradiation conditions, revealed that the ablation thresholds in air are up to three times lower than those measured in vacuum. Our analysis shows that this difference is caused by the existence of a long-lived transient non-equilibrium surface state at the solid-vacuum interface. The energy distribution of atoms at the surface is Maxwellian-like but with its high-energy tail truncated at the binding energy. We find that in vacuum the rate of energy transfer from the bulk to the surface layer to build the high-energy tail, which determines the lifetime of this non-equilibrium state, exceeds other characteristic timescales such as the surface cooling time. This prohibits thermal evaporation in vacuum for which the high-energy tail is essential. In air, however, collisions between the gas atoms and the surface markedly reduce the lifetime of this non-equilibrium surface state allowing thermal evaporation to proceed before the surface cools. It was experimentally observed that the difference between the ablation depth in vacuum and that in air disappears at the laser fluencies 2–3 times in excess of the vacuum threshold value. The material removal at this level of the deposited energy density attains the features of the non-equilibrium ablation similar for both cases. We find, therefore, that the threshold in vacuum corresponds to non-equilibrium ablation during the pulse, while thermal evaporation after the pulse is responsible for the lower ablation threshold observed in air. This paper provides direct experimental evidence of how the transient surface effects may strongly affect the onset and rate of a solid-gas phase transition.

Survival of the production target in successive experiments (with a repetition rate of 1 Hz) over an extended period of time is one of the key problems encountered in designing the Super-FRS (Superconducting Fragment Separator) at the future Facility forAntiprotons and Ion Research (FAIR). Because of the difficulties involved in construction of a liquid jet metal target, it is highly desirable to employ a solid production target at the Super-FRS. However, with the high beam intensities that will be available at the FAIR, the production target may be destroyed in a single experiment due to high specific energy deposition by the beam in the target material. The level of specific energy deposition can be reduced to an acceptable value by increasing the beam focal spot area. However, the spot size is limited by requirements of achieving good isotope resolution and sufficient transmission of the secondary beam through the system. The resolving power of the fragment separator is inversely proportional to the X-dimension of the focal spot whereas the transmission depends on Y-dimension only. It has been previously shown [Tahir et al., 2005c] that an elliptic focal spot with appropriate dimensions, will fulfill the above two conditions simultaneously and will also have a large enough area to reduce the specific energy deposition to an acceptable level for certain beam intensities of interest. In this paper we present numerical simulations of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic behavior of a solid graphite target that is irradiated by 1 GeV/u uranium beam in the intensity range of 1010 –1011 ions per bunch with a bunch length = 50 ns. These simulations have been carried out using a three-dimensional computer code, PIC3D, that includes elastic-plastic effects. This theoretical work has shown that up to a beam intensity of 1011 ions/bunch, one can employ a solid target while for higher intensities the target will be destroyed due to thermal stresses induced by the beam. It has also been found that a circular focal spot leads to minimum thermal stresses as it generates minimum pressure gradients compared to an elliptic focal spot, for the same specific energy deposition. Moreover, the stress level increases with an increase in the ellipticity of the focal spot. It is therefore recommended that one should use a circular focal spot for lower intensities provided that the criteria for isotope resolution and transmission are fulfilled.

The laser and plasma conditions at the onset of Raman scattering have been measured in plasmas formed from thin-foil targets. The targets were Al disks 50 to 250 nm thick and 200 to 500 μm in diameter mounted on 100 nm polymer films. The incident wavelength was 526 nm. Raman scattering was observed for nominal intensities from 1014 W/cm2 to 5 × 1014 W/cm2. The most important observation of the experiment is that the density-gradient scale-length at onset is independent of intensity. One would expect the scalelength at onset to be inversely related to the intensity, since the convective gain for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is proportional to the product of intensity and scalelength.

A simple model Equation-of-State (EOS) for matter in conditions of interest to Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and to Stellar Interiors is developed. It yields pressures and specific energies in good agreement with accurate EOS tabulations, for matter in the density range 10−6 < ρ < 104 g cm−3 and in the temperature range 0 ≤ T < 100 KeV, with the only exception being the liquid and gaseous phases of the undissociated molecular substances.

This EOS can be used for any element or mixture, requiring, as input data, only the chemical composition (A, Z, and abundancy of each element of the mixture) and three macroscopic constants of the material.

Electron acceleration by a circularly polarized Hermite–Gaussian (HG) laser beam in the plasma has been investigated theoretically for the different transverse electromagnetic (TEM) mode indices (m, n) as (0, 1), (0, 2), (0, 3), and (0, 4). HG laser beam possesses higher trapping force compared with a standard Gaussian beam owing to its propagation characteristics during laser–electron interaction. A single-particle simulation indicates a resonant enhancement in the electron acceleration with HG laser beam. We present the intensity distribution for different TEM modes. We also analyze the dependence of beam width parameter on electron acceleration distance, which effectively influences the electron dynamics. Electron acceleration up to longer distance is observed with the lower modes. However, the higher electron energy gain is observed with higher modes at shorter distance of propagation.

The scaling of the flux and maximum energy of laser-driven sheath-accelerated protons has been investigated as a function of laser pulse energy in the range of 15–380 mJ at intensities of 1016–1018 W/cm2. The pulse duration and target thickness were fixed at 40 fs and 25 nm, respectively, while the laser focal spot size and drive energy were varied. Our results indicate that while the maximum proton energy is dependent on the laser energy and laser spot diameter, the proton flux is primarily related to the laser pulse energy under the conditions studied here. Our measurements show that increasing the laser energy by an order of magnitude results in a more than 500-fold increase in the observed proton flux. Whereas, an order of magnitude increase in the laser intensity generated by decreasing the laser focal spot size, at constant laser energy, gives rise to less than a tenfold increase in observed proton flux.

Cluster-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is analyzed. A cluster is defined as a charged supermolecule with a charge of one (or of the order 1) and with a very high mass number A, so that Z/A « 1. The energy deposition range is shown to be very small (a few micrometers) for projectiles with a few tens of kev/a.m.u. A significant momentum transfer is therefore possible in its slowing down as it passes through matter. In this case, a high hydrodynamic efficiency seems evident. Three relevant models for cluster beam-target interactions are discussed: (1) the rocket model, where the ablation pressure (Pa) is much larger than the cluster beam direct pressure (II); (2) the hammer model, where Pa « II (in this case, two possibilities are discussed—an impact interaction between the beam and the target, and an impact interaction between one cluster and its absorption volume); (3) an intermediate model, where Pa ~II (in this regime, the hydrodynamic efficiency is maximum). Preliminary simulations were performed and the general features of the models were confirmed. Most relevant for ICF, it was found that approximately 75% of the beam energy is converted into X rays, so that the indirect drive is promising in this context.

It is known that relativistic laser plasma interactions can already today induce accelerating fields beyond some TV/m, which are indeed capable to efficiently accelerate plasma background electrons as well as protons. An introduction to the current state of the art will be given and possible applications of these optically induced charged particle sources will be discussed.

Some preliminary views are presented to the topic “Fast High Density Plasma Blocks Driven by Picosecond Terawatt Lasers” of the UWS-International Workshop 1–4 December 2004 in Sydney, Australia, underlining the motivation to explain the difference between the relativistic and the subrelativistic effects of ps-laser pulse interaction with plasma at powers above TW. This refers to specifically selected experimental and theoretical presentations at the workshop containing results for explaining the differences but also the important applications for studies on the fast ignitor scheme for application on nuclear fusion energy. One of the aims with relativistic proton beams is to realize conditions of spark ignition, while the subrelativistic case implies the generation of fast plasma blocks eventually with the possibility to ignite a fusion flame in uncompressed solid DT fuel for a power station with high efficiency.

Recent experiments of fast electron heating of aluminum foil targets have been analyzed by means of hybrid PIC simulations. A suitable initial angular distribution of fast electrons has been used and the diameter of the fast electron source has been fitted to reproduce with the same simulation parameters the beam divergence, Kα yields and temperatures at the target rear surface measured in the experiments. This results in a consistent description of the fast electron propagation that can be useful in general for simulations of laser-driven fast electron transport in dense media.

This article reports on the latest experiments in the series of Richtmyer–Meshkov instability (RMI) shock-tube experiments. Previous work described a double-bump experiment that evidenced some degree of unrepeatability. The present work features an enlarged perturbation introduced to improve repeatability. In common with the previous work, the experiments were conducted at shock Mach number 1.26 (70 kPa overpressure), using the Atomic Weapons Establishment 200 × 100 mm shock tube with a three-zone test cell arrangement of air/sulphur hexafluoride/air. The sulphur hexafluoride gas (SF6) was chosen for its high density (5.1 relative to air) providing an Atwood number of 0.67. Gas separation was by means of microfilm membranes, supported by fine wire meshes. A double-bump perturbation of two-dimensional geometry was superimposed on the downstream membrane representing a 0.6% addition to the dense gas volume. Visualization of the turbulent gas mixing was by laser sheet illumination of the seeded SF6 gas using a copper vapor laser pulsing at 12.5 kHz. Mie scattered light was recorded using a 35-mm rotating drum camera to capture a sequence of 50 images per experiment. Sample experimental results shown alongside corresponding three-dimensional hydrocode calculations highlight the problems in both analysis and comparison caused by multiple scattering arising from the necessary use of a high seeding concentration. Included is a demonstration of the effectiveness of introducing into the hydrocode a Monte Carlo-based simulation of the multiple scattering process. The results so derived yield greatly improved qualitative agreement with the experimental images. Quantitative analysis took the form of deriving relative intensity data from line-outs through experimental images and their code equivalents. A comparison revealed substantial agreement on major features.

The main objective of the experimental plasma physics activities at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) is the interaction processes of heavy ions with dense ionized matter. Gas discharge plasma targets were used for energy loss and charge state measurements in a regime of electron density and temperature up to 1019 cm-3 and 20 eV, respectively. Progress has been achieved in the understanding of charge-exchange processes in fully ionized hydrogen plasma. An improved model taking excitation-autoionization processes into account has removed most of the discrepancies of previous theoretical descriptions. Furthermore, it was found that the energy loss of the ion beam serves as an excellent diagnostic tool for measuring the electron density in partially ionized plasmas such as argon. The experience with these methods will be used in the future to diagnose dense laser produced plasmas. A setup with a 100 J/5 GW Nd:glass laser, currently under construction, will provide access to density range up to 1021 cm-3 and temperatures of more than 100 eV. To reach electron densities near solid-state density (1023 cm-3), heavy ion heated frozen rare gas crystals were used. The first hydrodynamic motion of ion heated solid material was observed. Vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) spectroscopy was applied to diagnose these strongly coupled nonideal plasmas.

This paper describes a fast multi-channel radiation pyrometer that was developed for warm dense-matter experiments with intense heavy ion beams at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH (GSI). The pyrometer is capable of measuring brightness temperatures from 2000 K to 50,000 K, at six wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared parts of the spectrum, with 5 ns temporal resolution, and several micrometers spatial resolution. The pyrometer's spectral discrimination technique is based on interference filters, which also act as mirrors to allow for simultaneous spectral discrimination of the same ray at multiple wavelengths.

Time-of-flight spectra of C, Fe, and Si ions produced with the use of a KrF excimer laser have been analyzed. Ion currents were collected by Faraday cups and their responses were analyzed using a detector signal function. This function was derived from shifted Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution, in order to uncover the contribution of partial currents of all the ionized species constituting the expanding plasma plume. The deconvolution method allowed to estimate parameters of the plasma, such as the ion temperature and the center-of-mass velocities of expanding ionized species. Furthermore, the linear charge-state dependence of the center-of-mass velocity has revealed the contribution of hydrodynamic and electrostatic forces to the expansion velocity of the plasma. The nearly isotropic distribution of the center-of-mass velocity indicates that the shape of the plasma plume is determined mainly by the angular distribution of the ionization degree of ions.

This survey is devoted to a few basic atomic problems associated with the stopping of nonrelativistic pointlike ions in dense and hot matter, and also to the Stark broadening diagnostics of the resulting beam-produced plasmas.

First, we consider the free electron contribution, taken in the RPA approximation with an exact dynamic dielectric function, valid at any temperature. Therefore, we obtain stopping power and straggling for any projectile velocity. The temperature dependence is of special relevance for a projectile energy smaller than 5 MeV/a.m.u.

Next, we revise the Barkas effect (Z3 corrections) through a novel and compact formulation, which is based on an analogy with electron impact broadening theory. It facilitates inclusion of the non hydrogenic and electronic structure of the target ions, in a more selective way. The results may increase the usual Z2-stopping by 15 to 30 per cent corrections.

Then, we show how the Stark broadening diagnostics of the compressed D + T fuel, seeded with high Z species, arising from the surrounding envelopes, may provide accurate determination of the electron number density ne. In this connection, it should be appreciated that the relatively long compression times (≃ 20 nsec) suggested by the HIBALL numerical simulation allow for a nearly Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) state in the target, with Te ≃ Ti. As a consequence, spectroscopic measurements are expected to be easier to implement in HIF targets, than in laser ones.

A tentative proposal for the use of Stark broadening diagnostics of inflight excited and highly stripped ion projectiles is displayed in § 5.

Experiments involving an HIB produced by a standard accelerator, and interacting with an independently produced coronal plasma are finally outlined.

The beam combination method using stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirrors (SBS-PCMs) is a promising technique for a high energy and high power laser output operating with a high repetition rate. The two-beam combined system was previously demonstrated with an amplitude dividing method. A four-beam combined laser system with amplitude dividing method is demonstrated in this work, and the phase stabilization experiment of this system is performed using the self phase control and the long-term stabilization technique. The phase differences between the SBS waves are stabilized with λ/30 and the fluctuation of the four-beam combined output energy is 6.16% during 2000 shots (200 s).

Second-harmonic generation of the relativistic self-focused chirped laser pulse in plasma has been studied with the exponential plasma density ramp profile in the presence of a planar magnetostatic wiggler. It is evident that the exponential plasma density ramp is helpful in enhancing second-harmonic generation as, with the introduction of the exponential plasma density ramp, self-focusing becomes stronger and hence, it leads to enhance the harmonic generation of the second order in the plasma. Also, it is observed that the efficiency of second-harmonic generation enhances significantly with an increase in the value of the chirp parameter. Further, the magnetostatic wiggler helps in enhancing the harmonic generation of the second order. This is due to the fact that dynamics of the oscillating electrons is altered due to the Lorentz force which, in turn, modifies the plasma wave and, hence, results in the efficient second-harmonic generation.

Wire array z pinches on the Z accelerator provide the most intense laboratory source of soft X rays in the world. The unique combination of a near-Planckian radiation source with high X-ray production efficiency (10 to 15% wall plug), large X-ray powers and energies (>100 TW, ≥0.8 MJ in 6 ns to 7 ns), large characteristic hohlraum volumes (0.5 to >10 cm3), long pulse lengths (5 to 20 ns), and low capital cost (<$50–$100/radiated Joule) may make z pinches a good match to the requirements for driving high-yield scale (>200 MJ yield) ICF capsules with adequate radiation symmetry and margin. The z-pinch-driven hohlraum approach of Hammer et al. (1999) may provide a conservative and robust solution to the requirements for high yield, and is currently being studied on the Z accelerator. This paper describes a multiple-region, 0-D hohlraum energetics model for z-pinch-driven hohlraums in four configurations. We observe consistency between the model and the measured X-ray powers and hohlraum wall temperatures to within ±20% in X-ray flux, for the four configurations. The scaling of pinch energy and radiation-driven anode-cathode gap closure with drive current are also examined.