A theoretical model for a multicascade liner system is proposed with a view to reduce the growth rate of Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability and to calculate the fusion parameters of a dense θ-pinch plasma. The dynamics of such plasma has been described using the modified snow-plow model for sinusoidal and t1/3 types of discharge current profiles. Numerical results demonstrate that the thermonuclear fusion parameters can be achieved for a dense θ-pinch deuterium-tritium (D-T) fiber plasma for an optimum choice of shell thickness. The relevance of this kind of study is possible use of gas-liner and staged pinches as an alternative source of thermonuclear fusion.

Intense continua of electromagnetic radiation of very brief duration are formed in the interaction of focused ultra-short terawatt laser pulses with matter. Two different kinds of experiments, which have been performed utilizing the Lund 10 Hz titanium-doped sapphire terawatt laser system are being described, where visible radiation and X-rays, respectively, have been generated. Focusing into water leads to the generation of a light continuum through self-phase modulation. The propagation of the light through tissue was studied addressing questions related to optical mammography and specific chromophore absorption. When terawatt laser pulses are focused onto a solid target with high nuclear charge Z, intense X-ray radiation of few ps duration and with energies exceeding hundreds of keV is emitted. Biomedical applications of this radiation are described, including differential absorption and gated-viewing imaging.

The paper presents the results of a study on propagation and focusing of high-intensity pulsed ion beams, produced by a self-magnetically insulated diode of semi-cylindrical geometry at the TEMP-6 accelerator (120 ns, 200–250 kV). We examined the space-charge neutralization of the beam, the energy density in the focus, the divergence of the beam, and its shot-to-shot displacement in the focal plane. It is found that the concentration of low-energy electrons in the beam is 1.3–1.5 times higher than the concentration of ions. We observed additional ion focusing by its own space charge. With an increase in the density of the net negative (electrons and ions) charge of the beam from 3.6 to 9 µC/cm2, the total divergence (the sum of the beam divergence in the vertical and horizontal planes) decreases from 11.4 to 4.5°. It leads to an increase in the energy density in the focus from 4 up to 10–12 J/cm2. To increase the electrons concentration in the beam, a metal grid installed in the ion beam transport region was used.

During the diffraction of a femtosecond pulse with a grating, apart spectral filtering, there occurs a time stretching due to the difference in the path length among the rays diffracted, even of equal wavelength. The reason resides in the action of the grating: to depart from the behavior of the mirror, that is, α = β, and to direct the rays in directions whose paths are groove-by-groove different of mλ. The compensation of this broadening is studied in the following by using a pair of grating in a particular mounting. The configuration is studied for the application in the selection of one single laser harmonics in the framework of high order harmonic generation processes.

The present work aims to study the influence of relativistic–ponderomotive effects on cross-focusing of two co-propagating high-power hollow Gaussian laser beams [high-power laser beams (HGLBs)] in collisionless plasma. The effective dielectric constant has been derived on account of relativistic–ponderomotive nonlinearity. The phenomenon of cross-focusing for higher-order modes of HGLB is compared for the case when only relativistic nonlinearity is operative in the system and it is seen that the relativistic–ponderomotive effects make the focusing much stronger and relatively faster. The critical curves for various order of HGLB is discussed and compared with the case when only ponderomotive nonlinearity is present and it reveals that in the case of relativistic–ponderomotive case the spot size reduces effectively. The higher-order modes of propagation of HGLB are also found to be governed by the parameter of another propagating HGLB. The present study is useful in determining the propagation dynamics of HGLB.

In inertial confinement fusion experiments, the symmetrical implosion calls for a new scheme: a nonsupported pellet. In this article, the first experiment is conducted using a plastic pellet covered with thin ferromagnetic material. In the system, the digital-phase-lead-compensator takes the position-related signal and processes it to provide a driving signal for the magnetic suspender. The suspended pellet is irradiated by the Gekko XII laser, having its total energy 2700 J with pulse width 800 ps at the wavelength 0.53 μm. The X-ray pinhole photograph confirms the spherically symmetrical implosion at the pellet core. At irradiation, the neutron yield is also observed.

The cryogenic system for maintaining a target at a constant temperature in the range 5–25 K after shutting off the pulse tube (PT) cryogenic refrigerator is developed and tested. The temperature stability at the sample is ±2 mK for at least 20 hours. The cryogenic setup consists of cryostat, PT cryocooler, liquid helium vessel, helium gas supply, thermo-radiation shield, thermal resistance. The system provides 0.25 W of cooling power at the target. The appropriate thermal resistance should be used for different temperatures. The designed operation mode is 3 minutes off and 15 minutes on. The deactivation of PT cryocooler allows to achieve the target position stability of 1 micrometer or less during the X-ray characterization. The effect of neutron-shield was estimated using Monte-Carlo simulation.

In this paper, we have studied the nonlinear laser absorption in a finite-size plasma, using a fully kinetic relativistic 1½-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation code, and shown that the rate in which laser absorption increases depends on the mass ratio (δ = m+/m−) and the equilibrium density ratio (α = n0+/n0− = z−/z+), respectively. This can be attributed to the essential effects of these parameters on the nonlinear phenomena related to the laser absorption such as phase-mixing and laser-scattering process. We have indicated that the reduction of the defined mass and density ratios increases the absorption rate in the finite-size plasma as long as the laser scattering from the plasma is not considerable. Moreover, the study of kinetic phase-space distributions indicates in a specific range of mass and density ratios a large amount of laser energy leads to arise a population of charged particles having directed kinetic energy along the laser direction. These simulation results are expected to be relevant to the experiments on the intense laser–plasma interactions with applications to the particle acceleration and fast ignition concept as well as to the astrophysical environments.

The concept of fast ignitor is intimately connected with the fundamental phenomenon of ultra-intense light beam propagation through dense matter in which kinetic effects combine with radiation pressure dominated hydrodynamics to form a complex scenario of extremely non-linear physics. In this paper, the fluid dynamic aspect of channel formation in a highly over-dense plasma is studied and possible attenuation mechanisms of the propagating pulse are evaluated in one dimension. Under the assumption that mass ablation reaches a quasistationary state, the radiation-assisted ablation pressure, the speed of the bow shock, and the density steepening around the critical point are determined self-consistently from the ID fluid conservation relations and the electromagnetic wave equation. Due to ponderomotive profile steepening, the ablation pressure is reduced by 40% in the subsonic region and is dominated by the radiation pressure in the supersonic domain. Channel lengths are calculated for various intensities and pellet compression ratios. Likewise, the nonlinear propagation of a superintense electromagnetic wave in an underdense plasma channel is investigated for the ID case with the help of a relativistic fluid model.

The electric field intensity distribution and the phase velocity distribution of a slit in laser beams with different parameters are analyzed. Using three-dimensional test particle simulation, the laser beam with a slit induced acceleration of electrons with different initial momenta is investigated. Contrary to anticipation, the maximum net energy gain is not monotone increasing as the incoming momentum increasing. Based on the field structure and analysis, we gave an explanation for this.

Bandwidth effects on laser-plasma interaction were investigated with a ¼-μm laser. Planar targets were irradiated with a 1- to 40-cm–1 bandwidth laser at I = 1 × 1013–4 × 1015 W/cm2. Above 3 × 1013 W/cm2, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) was observed with 1 cm–1 light. This process was strongly reduced with a 40-cm–1 light. Evolution of the convective SBS was studied with 1-D fluid simulation code. Bandwidth effect on the SBS growth was discussed to compare the theoretical prediction and experimental results. The scalelength dependence exists for the SBS reduction with a broadband laser.

An analytic model of ion beam driven hohlraums is presented which is used to determine the optimal hohlraum design parameters. It is shown that the radiation intensity within the hohlraum can exceed the average ion intensity driving the hohlraum. This “greenhouse effect” significantly lowers ion beam intensity requirements for driving a fusion microexplosion.

The time-dependent soft X-ray emission of helium and nitrogen plasmas generated by optical-field ionization is reported. The experiments were carried out by focusing pulses of the high-power Ti:sapphire laser of the Lund Institute of Technology (λ = 796 nm, pulse duration 150 fs, pulse energy 150 mJ) to a 50-μm diameter spot close to a nozzle, using He and N2 as target gases. The emission on He+, N4+, and N3+ resonance lines was recorded by means of a flat-field grating spectrometer coupled to an X-ray streak camera. A pronounced difference in the temporal shape of the emission of the Lyman-α line of hydrogen-like helium and of the 2p−3d resonance lines of lithium-like and beryllium-like nitrogen was observed. The helium line exhibited an initial spike followed by a slow revival of the emission, whereas the nitrogen lines showed a slow decay after a fast initial rise. These observations are explained with the help of simulations.

The paper presents the result of investigation gas emission from anode polymer coating of applied – Br magnetically insulated ion diode. The gas pressure value for any polymer type was determined. The investigations of the pressure variation were carried out during the pulse repetition rate of ion beam from 1 to 4 pps. The residual gas pressure value variation inside the vacuum chamber influenced on the ion beam parameters. The mass content of ion beam injected into the transition area did not depend on the residual gas pressure value. The breakdown of residual gas pressure by eddy electric field of magnetic coils was investigated.

The effect of transverse magnetic fields on surface high-harmonic generation in intense laser–solid interactions is investigated. It is shown that the longitudinal motion of electrons can be coupled with the transverse motion via the magnetic fields, which lead to even-order harmonics under normal laser incidence. The dependence of the coupling efficiency and hence even harmonic generation with preplasma scale length and magnetic field strength are presented based upon particle-in-cell simulations. When the magnetic field is parallel to the laser electric field, the spectral intensity of the second harmonic is proportional to the magnetic field strength in a wide range up to 160 MG, while the situation with the magnetic field perpendicular to the laser electric field is more complicated. The second harmonic generation due to the magnetic field also tends to increase with the plasma density scale lengths, which is different from the high-harmonic generation by the oscillating mirror mechanism. With the increase of the laser spot size from a laser wavelength λL, both the magnetic field-induced harmonics and oscillating mirror high harmonics tend to increase first and then become saturated after 3λL. The magnetic field-induced second harmonic may be used to evaluate large self-generated magnetic fields developed near the critical density region and the preplasma conditions.

A laser–plasma interaction experiment was performed in order to match effective conditions for wake-field electron acceleration. A 30-fs pulse was made to interact with a preformed plasma generated via the exploding foil technique from a 1-μm-thick plastic film. The irradiance of the femtosecond pulse in the plasma was 1020 Wcm−2. The interaction conditions were investigated via imaging and spectroscopy at the fundamental and the second harmonic of the laser frequency, both forward and backward. Our data clearly show that conditions suitable for electron acceleration are achieved close to the propagation axis and can be easily reproduced from shot to shot. In contrast, significant growth of instabilities occurs at the boundaries of the interaction region. These observations are consistent with a preliminary evidence of forward acceleration of high-energy electrons. Optical, X-ray, and γ-ray data obtained for different positions of the foil target with respect to the laser focal plane further support this promising scenario.

General aspects of the excitation of matter with heavy-ion beams are discussed. Lasers in the wavelength region between 1 and 3 μm in rare-gas mixtures pumped with 1.9-GeV xenon, 100-MeV sulphur, 3.6-MeV argon, and 3.3-MeV helium ions are described as examples for lasers pumped by heavy-ion beams. The beam power ranges from a few watts (dc) to about 1 MW during short pulses of about 1-ns length. Optical gain can be measured with an intracavity method. Data on the shape of the volume excited by a 100- MeV 32S beam are shown. An experimental setup for time-resolved optical spectroscopy in a wide wavelength region between a few nanometers and about 700 nm is described. Emission spectra of rare gases excited by heavy-ion beams are discussed and optical gain on ion lines and excimer bands is estimated for different target and beam parameters. Collisional processes in the target gas were studied by time-resolved optical spectroscopy. Population densities of selected 3p levels in Ne I, II, and IV and rate constants for collisional depopulation of excited levels were determined. Experiments planned at the heavy-ion synchrotron SIS at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt are discussed.

Brillouin backward scattering is investigated in the interaction of linearly polarized short laser pulse with a homogenous underdense transversely magnetized plasma by taking into account the relativistic and nonlinearity effects up to third order. The plasma is embedded in a uniform magnetic field perpendicular to both of propagation direction and electric vector of the radiation field. Temporal growth rate of instability is calculated by using of the nonlinear wave equation. Results are significantly different in comparison with lower order computations. The growth rate of Brillouin backward instability shows a decrease due to the presence of external magnetic field, while relativistic and higher order nonlinearities due to the external magnetic field, give rise the Brillouin backward scattering instability.

The Weibel instability driven by temperature anisotropy is investigated in a two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell simulation in non-extensive statistics in the relativistic regime. In order to begin the simulation, we introduced a new 2D anisotropic distribution function in the context of non-extensive statistics. The heavy ions considered to be immobile and form the neutralizing background. The numerical results show that non-extensive parameter q plays an important role on the magnetic field saturation time, the time of reduction temperature anisotropy, evolution time to the quasi-stationary state, and the peak energy density of magnetic field. We observe that the instability saturation time increases by increasing the non-extensive parameter q. It is shown that structures with superthermal electrons (q < 1) could generate strong magnetic fields during plasma thermalization. The simulation results agree with the previous simulations for an anisotropic Maxwellian plasma (q = 1).

In order to enhance the coupling efficiency, a low Z ablator is generally used for ICF targets. The ablator thickness is appropriately chosen so it is burned out by the end of a laser pulse. Then all of the implosion kinetic energy is contained in the DT fuel. However, a small amount of preheating degrades the compression in a hollow shell, DT fueled target implosion. In this paper, we investigate the preheating level of the fuel shell by Fokker–Planck simulations of the electron heat transport.

From the analysis, it is found that a thick surface layer of a laser irradiated low-Z target is preheated by Maxwellian tail electrons which have a long mean free path. Hence, we propose that the target be precompressed by a tailored pulse, in order to increase the shell ρΔR at the laser peak.