The electromagnetic stopping of intense and relativistic electron beams (REB) arising from femtosecond lasers interacting with a precompressed deuterium–tritium (DT) fuel is investigated within the Bohr–Fermi formalism with a large impact parameter. Dynamical intrabeam correlations in the target are shown to be quantitatively significant for various arrangements of projectile electrons and the overall REB penetration in the DT fuel.

Analytical and numerical investigation of the reflection and transmission of a counter-propagating relativistically strong laser pulse from a relativistically flying dense plasma double-sided mirror is studied. We assume that the incident laser pulse is short, so that we can neglect the slow ion dynamics and consider the electron motion only. Numerical results of the amplitudes of the reflected/transmitted electric fields from a uniformly moving mirror, accelerated mirror, and oscillating mirror are obtained. Fourier spectrum of the reflected intensity from the moving mirror shows that the intensity decreases with increase in the frequency. The reflected pulse has an up-shifted frequency and increased intensity. It is seen that the first few cycles of the reflected radiation exhibit presence of high harmonics, while the later cycles are compressed together with harmonics in comparison with the earlier cycles. The variation of the reflection coefficient for a uniformly moving mirror as a function of the thin foil plasma-density parameter is numerically studied.

Experiments were performed at Ecole Polytechnique in order to study the effect of preheating of targets by X rays during interaction with a powerful 4ω laser. Thin aluminum foils (typically of 5–15-μm thickness) are used as targets. The emission at 40 and 80 eV is recorded by Schwarzchild microscopes and is time resolved. By assuming a blackbody emission of the rear side of the foil just at the beginning of the emission, we deduce the temperature, by measuring the ratio of the emissivity at the two wavelengths. Experimental results are presented for an energy varying between 10 and 30 J delivered at the fourth harmonic of the neodymium laser in a pulse of 0.5-ns time duration focused in a 100-μm-diameter focal spot. Simulations performed with the code MULTI including radiative transfer are presented in order to show the effect of radiation on the process of heating of the target material. Radiation spectra emitted from the laser side and the rear side, as well as the temperature and density evolution as a function of time and mass coordinate, are shown.

The paper presents the first experimental results obtained by using new gamma-quantum diagnostics for ion beam induced high energy density matter. Registration of γ-quantum output from the region of beam-target interaction with time resolution enables to pick-up information on density evolution of the target even if the ionization state of matter involved is unknown.

Filamentation instability for a rotating light ion beam (LIB) fusion system is investigated. Stability conditions, including the effects of fractional current neutralization, rotation of LIB and beam temperature, are derived for propagation through a background plasma. The results are illustrated by plotting stability boundaries for a rotating proton beam propagating in a plasma.

Application of Fourier theory to heat conduction due to laser irradiation at high power intensities (i.e. 1010 W/m2) gives errors of the order of 30 per cent at the upper end of the temperature rise time. This is caused by the assumptions made in the Fourier theory, since the heat flux through a given plane depends on the electron energy distribution through the material. On the scale of distance required to examine the problem, the material can no longer be considered as being a homogeneous continuum and when the power intensities of interest are concerned, the higher order terms in the heat transfer equation become important. Therefore, the problem requires to be examined in the quantum field. Application of electron kinetic theory to the problem enhances the solution within an accuracy greater than 90 per cent. The present theory introduces a new model for the conduction mechanism.

We have investigated the effect of free electrons on the spectral properties of high-order harmonics generated in a neon gas jet by a 30 fs Titanium:Sapphire pumping laser with intensities in the range 5–10 × 1014 W/cm2. The main feature of our observations concerns the possibility of continuously tuning the harmonic wavelength in the spectral region 20–7 nm, by taking advantage of the blue shift of harmonic wavelengths induced by the presence of free electrons to cover the entire spectral region between two consecutive harmonics of the unshifted spectrum. Different amounts of blue shift, which can be as large as 0.3–0.4 nm, are imparted to the given harmonic by simply changing the gas-jet-laser-beam-waist relative position. We have also interpreted our experimental results with a simple model for the generation process based on the “barrier suppression” ionization of an atom exposed to an ultraintense laser field.

An experiment to study the physics of merging and of focusing ion beams is under development at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. In this design, parallel beams of ions (C+, Al+, or Al++) are accelerated to several MV and merged transversely. The merged beams are then further accelerated and the growth in transverse and longitudinal emittance is determined for comparison with theory. The completed apparatus will be used to study problems associated with focusing ion beams to a small spot as required for heavy ion fusion. Details of the accelerator design and considerations of the physics of combining beams are presented.

We suggest several cascade lasing schemes: (1) cascade of laser transitions between atom (ion) excited levels when the lower laser level of one laser transition is simultaneously the upper laser level of another transition located below; (2) successive lasing, first, on ion transitions, then after ion recombination on atom transitions; (3) while using multicomponent mixtures, successive lasing on atoms (ions) of separate components. These possibilities are discussed in terms of specific lasers, some of which have been studied experimentally.

We report that the tail modulation of Stokes pulses in the high-energy stimulated Brillouin scattering pulse compression can be suppressed by controlling effective pulse width of the pump. It is shown through numerical simulations and validated experimentally that the effective pulse width is an appropriate parameter, which determines the generation of tail modulation. The effective pulse width broaden as the increase of energy. This mechanism leads to the amplification of Stokes tail edge and it is the cause of tail modulation.

Influence of backstreaming ions from the target on spot size of focused 2 MeV electron beam was considered. The 2D version of the particle-in-cell code KARAT was used to study the formation of the ions stream and dynamics of the electron beam. It was shown that light species emitted from the target can disrupt the beam. The emission of low-ionized states of tantalum cannot disrupt the beam during about 30 ns or longer. A few non-invasive techniques of mitigation of the beam disruption were considered. Final magnetic lens with fast variation of magnetic field of several hundred Ampere-turns per nanosecond is capable to stabilize initial spot size of the compressed beam at the target.

X-ray spectra of H-like Mg ions produced in a laser plasma have been measured by space-resolved high-resolution spectroscopy. We identified satellite lines near Lyα lines, 2lnl′ − 1snl′ + hν for n = 2, 3, and 4. We construct a collisional radiative model including the doubly excited states for the intensity ratios of satellite lines. We use atomic data calculated by different methods for satellite lines and compare the results. We derive the electron temperature and density of the laser-produced plasma by a new technique using intensity ratios of only satellite lines. This technique is useful because the Lyα lines are often affected by opacity.

Experiments on self-similar Rayleigh–Taylor instability-induced mixing in gases in the Earth's gravity conducted on the OSA facility at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center–VNIITF are described. These experiments are distinguished from other experiments, usually performed with immiscible liquids in a tank or with miscible liquids initially separated by a solid barrier that is retracted, in that a membrane (of ∼1 μm thickness) with liquid soap film embedded in a thin wire array (with microconductors of diameter 20 μm and with a spacing of 4 mm) initially separates the fluids. An electric current to initiate the fluid interpenetration and mixing destroys the membrane. Experiments performed for three different Atwood numbers are described: in SF6-Ar with A = 0.54, in SF6-He with A = 0.94, and in Kr-Ar with A = 0.35. Various parameters of the mixing were measured from Schlieren photographs. In particular, the dimensionless rate of mixing front growth is α = 0.078.

The influence of absorption and ionization on high-order harmonic generation in a gas-filled hollow fiber is analyzed within the framework of slowly varying envelope approximation. Harmonic spectra and pressure dependencies are calculated for high-order harmonic generation in hollow fibers filled with different rare gases. Ionization of the gas filling the fiber gives rise to self-phase modulation of the pump pulse, changing the phase mismatch within the pump pulse and shifting the maxima in pressure dependencies of high-order harmonics.

In this article, we demonstrate the generation of four phase-locked harmonic pulses separated in time using frequency-domain interferometry. The spectra present a high sensitivity to a change of the relative phase on an attosecond time scale. The spectral resolution and the control of this relative phase could be used to perform high resolution measurements.

The characterization of energetic protons generated in the ShenGuang-II UP petawatt laser interactions with foil targets has been systematically studied. The proton energy spectra and angular distributions are measured with a radiochromic film stack. It shows that the proton energy spectra have a Boltzmann distribution with temperature of about 2.8 MeV and cutoff energy of about 20 MeV. The divergence angles of protons vary from 10° to 60°, dependent on the proton energy. The proton source size and location are investigated via the proton point-projection mesh imaging. The proton virtual sources are found to locate tens to hundreds of microns in front of the foil target, depending on the proton energies. A Monte Carlo simulation estimates the diameter of the virtual proton source to be about 12 μm for the protons with energy of 16.8 MeV, which is much smaller than the laser focus size of about 50 μm. The spatial resolution of the 16.8 MeV proton imaging is quantified with the point spread function to be about 15 μm, which is consistent with the proton virtual source size. These results will be important for the users conducting experiments with the protons as a backlighting source on the ShenGuang-II UP petawatt laser.

The general issue of the spectral selection of a portion of the wide extreme-ultraviolet spectrum obtained via extreme nonlinear processes as high order harmonic generation includes the problem of maintaining the ultrafast temporal duration of the pulses. In this paper, we present an instrument in which the pulse selection is operated in the wide wavelength range from 17 nm to above 60 nm, which is the central portion of the high-harmonics spectrum, with an instrumental function of about three femtoseconds. The design of the monochromator is based on the conical diffraction, which realizes very high diffraction efficiency by exploiting the specular reflection on the grating facets long-wise illuminated. The optical layout makes use of two gratings in the compensated-monochromator scheme already presented by the authors. The discussion of the residual aberration is also presented, with the aims to investigate the ultimate temporal resolution obtainable by this scheme.

The effects of magnetic vortex acceleration (MVA) are investigated with two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations by laser interaction with near-critical density (NCD) plasma inside a hollow conical plasma. Energetic and collimated proton beams can be accelerated by a longitudinal charge-separation field. Energetic protons with a peak energy of 220 MeV are produced in PIC simulations. Compared with a uniform NCD plasma, both the cutoff energy and collimation of proton beams are improved remarkably. Furthermore, the influence of different gap sizes of cone tip is taken into account. For optimizing magnetic vortex acceleration, the gap size of the cone tip is suggested to match the focal spot size of laser pulse.

Graphene micrometric particles have been embedded into polyethylene at different concentrations by using chemical–physical processes. The synthesized material was characterized in terms of mechanical and optical properties, and Raman spectroscopy. Obtained targets were irradiated by using a Nd:YAG laser at intensities of the order of 1010 W/cm2 to generate non-equilibrium plasma expanding in vacuum. The laser–matter interaction produces charge separation effects with consequent acceleration of protons and carbon ions. Plasma was characterized using time-of-flight measurements of the accelerated ions. Applications of the produced targets in order to generate carbon and proton ion beams from laser-generated plasma are presented and discussed.

We studied the formation of the collector ion flow in magnetically insulated diodes (MID) with plate-, sphere-, and cone-shaped cathodes. The ions are formed as a result of the ionization of residual gas by electron bombardment and are focused into the cathode plasma region. This effect can negatively influence diode operation in the microsecond range of pulse duration.