It is shown that it is possible to accelerate micro-foils to velocities from 108 cm/s up to relativistic velocities without the disturbance of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The acceleration occurs due to the radiation pressure of proper high power lasers. In these systems, the ablation force is negligible relative to the ponderomotive force that dominates the acceleration. The laser irradiances of 1017 W/cm2 < IL < 1021 W/cm2 with a pulse duration of the order of 10 picoseconds can accelerate a micro-foil by the laser radiation pressure to velocities as high as 109 cm/s before breaking by Rayleigh Taylor (RT) instability. Similarly, laser irradiances of IL > 1021 W/cm2 with pulse duration of the order of 10 femtoseconds can accelerate a micro-foil to relativistic velocities without RT breaking. Due to the nature of the accelerating ponderomotive force, in both the relativistic and non-relativistic cases, the structure of the accelerated target contains a double layer (DL) at the interface of the laser-target interaction. The DL acts as a piston during the acceleration process. The influence of the DL surface tension on the RT instability is also analyzed in this paper.

Acceleration of quasineutral plasma blocks by ponderomotive force induced by normally incident short laser pulse is studied here via 1D3V Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. Very high current densities 109–1011 Acm−2 of accelerated ions are observed for maximum laser intensities in the range 1016–1018 Wcm−2 on solid hydrogen target. Ion acceleration process is traced here via evolution of ion density and of ion velocity distribution. Basic parameters of the accelerated plasma blocks are determined from temporally integrated ion distributions. Our results provide more detailed information than the previous analytical estimates (Hora, 2003) and the two-fluid 1D hydrodynamic simulations (Glowacz et al., 2004).

Here we report on the production of highly directed ion blocks by plasma interaction of ultraviolet wavelength light produced from a KrF laser. This may support the requirement to produce a fast ignition deuterium-tritium fusion at densities not much higher than the solid state by a single shot petawatt-picoseconds ultraviolet laser pulse. Using double Rayleigh initial density profiles, we are studying numerically how the nonlinear force necessary to accelerate plasma blocks may reach the highest possible thickness. Propagation of plasma blocks and the volumetric hot electrons can be shown in detail. Results of computations for wavelengths of two lasers are compared, which show that the block current density for a KrF laser is approximately four times bigger than for the Nd-glass lasers. This is in good agreement with the number predicted by theory.

The requirements of matching shell ICF target parameters, parameters of compressing, and triggering drivers under direct (fast) ignition are developed. Thin shell target, which represents a shell-ablator with a DT-ice layer, frosted on the inner surface of the shell are considered. Design of a target which ensures the energy supply from the triggering driver to the central part of thermonuclear fuel, in both spherical and cylindrical geometry is developed. Spherical target is furnished with one or two conical channels for the injection of the triggering driver radiation. The ends of the cylindrical target are protected by heavy material walls that have the holes of the radius equal to the final radius of compressed fuel. It was found that the parameters of fast ignition spherical and cylindrical targets, which provide high thermonuclear gain of 500–2000 in the range of the compressing driver energy of 1–10 MJ, may be matched with the drivers parameters at low aspect ratios of the targets, 10–20. The operation of spherical targets at the moderate radius convergence ratio of 15–20, may be provided at the triggering driver energy not higher than 30 kJ. The operation of cylindrical target with spin-oriented DT-fuel at radius convergence ratio of 20–25 may be provided at 150–200 kJ of the triggering driver energy.

The study of heavy ion stopping dynamics using associated K-shell projectile and target radiation was the focus of the reported experiments. Ar, Ca, Ti, and Ni projectile ions with the initial energies of 5.9 and 11.4 MeV/u were slowed down in quartz and arogels. Characteristic radiation of projectiles and target atoms induced in close collisions was registered. The variation of the projectile ion line Doppler shift due to the ion deceleration measured along the ion beam trajectory was used to determine the ion velocity dynamics. The dependence of the ion velocity on the trajectory coordinate was measured over 70–90% of the ion beam path with a spatial resolution of 50–70 μm. The choice of SiO2 aerogel with low mean densities of 0.04–0.15 g/cm3 as a target material, made it possible to stretch the ion stopping range by more than 20–50 times in comparison with solid quartz. It allowed for resolving the dynamics of the ion stopping process. Experimentally, it has been proven that the fine porous nano-structure of aerogels does not affect the ion energy loss and charge state distribution. The strong increase of the ion stopping range in aerogels made it possible to resolve fast ion radiation dynamics. The analysis of the projectile Kα-satellites structure allows supposing that ions propagate in solid in highly exicted states. This can provide an experimental explanation for so called gas-solid effect.

The irradiation of thin films by intensive subpicosecond laser pulses with nanosecond prepulse is accompanied by a number of various physical processes. The laser beam transmissions through the film as well as the re-emission flux on both sides of the film plasma have been evaluated by simulation for Al and CH2 materials. It has been demonstrated that the thickness of the film can be chosen to cut off the long nanosecond prepulse whereas the main pulse is transmitted through the plasma. Thus, thin films can be useful for the laser contrast improvement in experiments with different targets.

Nevertheless, the laser energy transformation into the soft X-ray radiation on the back side of the shielding film plasma can reach up to 7% of the incident intensity for the Al film and result in strong preheating of the target. At the same time the re-emission flux produced by a CH2 film is an order lower than that in the case of Al film. The shielding of an Ag bulk target by Al and CH2 films is simulated and discussed.

The k-L turbulence model, where k is the turbulent kinetic energy and L represents the turbulent eddy scale length, is a two-equation turbulence model that has been proposed to simulate turbulence induced by Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer Meshkov (RM) instabilities, which play an important role in the implosions of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsule targets. There are three free parameters in the k-L model, and in this paper, I calibrate them independently by comparing with RT and RM data from the linear electric motor (LEM) experiments together with classical Kelvin-Helmoholtz (KH) data. To perform this calibration, I numerically solved the equations of one-dimensional (1D) Lagrangian hydrodynamics, in a manner similar to that of contemporary ICF codes, together with the k-L turbulence model. With the three free parameters determined, I show that the k-L model is successful in describing both shear-driven and buoyancy-driven instabilities, capturing the experimentally observed separation between bubbles and spikes at high Atwood number for the RT case, as well as the temporal mix width recorded in RM shock tube experiments.

Stochastic instabilities are studied considering the motion of one particle in a very high intensity wave propagating along a constant homogeneous magnetic field, and in a high intensity wave propagating in a nonmagnetized medium perturbed by one or two low intensity traveling waves. Resonances are identified and conditions for resonance overlap are studied. The part of chaos in the electron acceleration is analyzed. PIC code simulation results confirm the stochastic heating.

Foams are an important component of various inertial confinement fusion target schemes. The propagation of shock waves in foams is also an important issue for many other laser experiments (e.g., laboratory astrophysics experiments). The usual approach is to assume that the foam can be considered as a homogeneous mixture. Taking into account the effects of foam heterogeneity leads to increased shock velocity and reduced compressibility. Evidence of this effect is obtained using two-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement Eulerian numerical simulations. Nonetheless, for the very low density foams filled with DT ice used in recent direct drive target designs, the homogeneous mixture model provides adequate shock timing, density, and pressure profiles.

We investigated the expansion dynamics of laser-produced plasmas expanding into an axial magnetic field. Plasmas were generated by focusing 1.064 μm Nd:YAG laser pulses onto a planar tin target in vacuum and allowed to expand into a 0.5 T magnetic field where the field lines were aligned along the plume expansion direction. Gated images employing an intensified charge-coupled device showed focusing of the plasma plume, which were also compared with results, obtained using particle-in-cell modeling methods. The estimated density and temperature of the plasma plumes employing emission spectroscopy revealed significant changes in the presence and absence of the 0.5 T magnetic field. In the presence of the field, the electron temperature is increased with distance from the target, while the density showed opposite effects.

A fundamental different mechanism dominates laser interaction with picosecond-terawatt pulses in contrast to the thermal-pressure processes with ns pulses. At ps-interaction, the thermal effects are mostly diminished and the nonlinear (ponderomotive) forces convert laser energy instantly with nearly 100% efficiency into the space charge neutral electron cloud, whose motion is determined by the inertia of the attached ion cloud. These facts were realized only by steps in the past and are expressed by the ultrahigh plasma acceleration, which is more than few thousand times higher than observed by any thermokinetic mechanism. The subsequent application for side-on ignition of uncompressed fusion fuel by the ultrahigh accelerated plasma blocks is studied for the first time by using the genuine two-fluid hydrodynamics. Details of the shock-like flame propagation can be evaluated for the transition to ignition conditions at velocities near 2000 km/s for solid deuterium-tritium.

A model of quasars and their associated jets as phenomena of magnetic selfcompression is presented. Magnetic field self-compression, as observed in laboratory plasma focus devices, results in increases in energy density of more than 108 and in even larger increases in transferred power density. Our model, based on the scaling of these phenomena to astrophysical dimensions, avoids the problems of gravitationallyconfined approaches. It presents a mechanism by which the energy of a quasar is immediately derived from a volume nearly 106 times larger than the observed quasar radiating volume and is ultimately derived from the volume of an entire protogalactic plasma cloud. The model's predictions of quasar energy, radiated power, lifetime, dimensions, density and rotational velocity are in good agreement with observations. Part II of this paper extends the model to radio galaxies and briefly discusses the role of similar self-compression processes in the origin of filamentary super-clusters of galaxies.

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets can be imploded by heavy-ion beams (HIBs) in order to obtain a highly compressed fuel microsphere. The hydrodynamic efficiency of the compression can be optimized by tuning the ablation process in order to produce the total evaporation of the pusher material by the end of the implosion. Such pusherless compressions produce very highly compressed targets for relatively short confinement times. However, these times are long enough for a fusion burst to take place, and burnup fractions of 30% and higher can be obtained if the volume ignition requirements are met. Numerical simulations demonstrate that targets of 1-mg DT driven by a few MJ can yield energy gains of over 70. Although direct drive is used in these simulations, the main conclusions about volume ignition are also applicable to indirect drive.

The dynamics of the expansion plasma produced by excimer laser ablation of a silicon target into oxygen and mixed O2/Ar atmosphere were studied by means of time-resolved imaging of the expanding plume. Experiments were performed in pure oxygen, ranging between 0.13 and 13.33 Pa, and at different O2/Ar ratios at a fixed total pressure of 13.33 Pa. The occurrence of a shock wave (SW) generated by the supersonic expansion of the plasma was observed at high pressure values. The presence of the SW had a strong influence on the structure of SiOx thin films. In fact, silicon dioxide thin films were always obtained in presence of the SW, irrespective of the oxygen content in the gaseous mixture. On the contrary, suboxide thin films were obtained when the expansion occurred at lower pressure values (no SW presence). The temperature rise following the developing of the SW, is supposed to enhance the oxygen molecules dissociation by increasing the efficiency of the silicon oxidation reaction.

Photoionization of single-charged heavy ions has been proposed recently by Rubbia (1989) as a non-Liouvillean injection scheme from the linac into the storage rings of a driver accelerator for inertial confinement fusion. The main idea of this scheme is the accumulation of high currents of heavy ions without the usually inevitable increase of phase space. Here we suggest the use of the photoionization idea in an alternative scheme: if it is applied at the final stage of pulse compression (replacing the conventional bunch compression by an rf voltage, which always increases the momentum spread), there is a significant advantage in the performance of the accelerator. We show, in particular, that this new compression scheme can potentially relax the tough stability limitations, which were identified in the heavy-ion fusion reactor study HIBALL (Badger et al. 1984). Moreover, it is promising for achieving higher beam power, which is suitable for indirectly driven fusion targets (1016 W/g, in contrast with 1014 W/g for the directly driven targets in HIBALL).

The idea of non-Liouvillean bunch compression is to stack a large number of bunches (typically 50–100) in the same phase-space volume during a change of charge state of the ion. A particular feature of this scheme with regard to beam dynamics is its transient nature, since the time required is one revolution per bunch. After the stacking the intense bunch is ejected and directly guided to the target. The present study is a first step in exploring the possibly limiting effect of space charge under the parameter conditions of a full-size driver accelerator. Preliminary results indicate that there is a limit to the effective stacking number (non-Liouvillean “compression factor”), which is, however, not prohibitive. Requirements on the power of the photon beam from a free-electron laser are also discussed. It is seen that resonant cross sections of the order of 10−15 cm2 lead to photon beam powers of a few megawatts.

In the fast ignition scenario for inertial fusion, a relativistic electron beam is supposed to travel from the side of the fusion pellet to its core. One one hand, a relativistic electron beam passing through a plasma is a highly unstable system. On the other hand, the pellet core is denser than its side by four orders of magnitude so that the beam makes its way through a important density gradient. We here investigate the effect of this gradient on the instabilities. It is found that they should develop so early that gradient effects are negligible in the linear phase.

Hole boring and fast ignition seem to exclude each other: When there is hole boring, no ignition occurs, and vice versa. The laser beam pressure only causes a more or less deep cone-shaped critical surface that leads to better guidance of the beam and to improved laser–plasma coupling. At laser wavelengths of the order of 1 μm, successful fast ignition requires strong anomalous laser beam–pellet coupling.

The transport of high-current heavy-ion beams in plasma channels is a promising option for the final transport in a heavy-ion fusion reactor, since it simplifies the construction of the reactor chamber significantly. Our experiments at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung demonstrate the creation of 1 m long stable plasma channels and the transport of heavy-ion beams. The article outlines the experimental setup used at GSI and reports the results of beam transport measurements using these long channels. The experiments demonstrate good beam transport properties of the channel, indicating that channel transport is a viable alternative to neutralized-ballistic transport.

In this paper, self-focusing of asymmetric cosh-Gaussian laser beams in collisionless magnetized plasma has been studied. The non-linearity in dielectric constant considered herein is mainly due to the ponderomotive force. The non-linear coupled differential equations for the beam width parameters in transverse dimensions of the beam have been obtained by using WKB and paraxial approximations under parabolic equation approach. The numerical computation is completed by using fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. The effect of unlike decentered parameters in both transverse dimensions of the beam on self-focusing of cosh-Gaussian beams has been presented. Further, the effect of the static magnetic field and polarization modes of the laser has been explored.

The paper discusses recent advances in the use of foams in laser–plasma experiments, concerning in particular: (1) the use of foam in order to get an efficient smoothing of laser energy deposition, (2) the problem of hydrodynamics of layered foam-payload targets, (3) the use of foam for shock pressure amplification in equation-of-state experiments, (4) the study of the equation of state of foams in the Megabar regime, and (5) the use of foams for astrophysics relevant experiments, here in particular shock acceleration experiments.