X-ray spectra of plasma produced by the interaction of Ti:Sa laser pulses (duration from 60 fs to 1 ps, and energy from 15 mJ to 128 mJ) with foil and solid Teflon and AL targets are investigated. It is shown experimentally and theoretically that the use of low contrast (10−2 – 10−4) short laser pulses, essentially promotes the conditions for generation of fast multi-charged ions. This effect is caused by self-focusing of the main laser pulse in a preplasma produced by intense laser prepulses. Modeling of the observed spectral line shape gives evidence of a considerable (about 3%) amount of multi-charged He-like F ions with energy E ∼ 1 MeV at rather low values of laser intensity IL ≈ 6 × 1016 W cm−2.

Saturation effects in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in water for elemental analysis have been investigated. Existing theoretical model of laser-induced plasma in solids has been applied to liquid phase under some simplifying assumptions to take account of the laser pulse energy dependence of atomic emissions from Na and Cu in aqueous solution. The theory was found to explain the emission process for laser energies up to but below the saturation level. The saturation limit of the emission with laser pulse energy corresponds well with that of the plasma temperature deduced from blackbody emission considerations. The saturation energies for atomic emissions were found to be lower for bulk excitations compared to water jet excitations. The dependence of signal strength on sample concentration indicated that the concentration values at saturation are lower at higher laser energies, as is expected from the theoretical model.

Here we report on the present status of our project on statistical modelling of charge dynamics within irradiated samples. Boltzmann statistical approach to model the radiation damage in samples irradiated by FEL photons is tested in a study case of a spherically symmetric xenon cluster. Qualitative agreement between the model predictions and the experimental data is found. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of the statistical method for describing the non-equilibrium dynamics of samples exposed to FEL radiation.

We present a novel technique for focusing and energy selection of high-current, MeV proton/ion beams. This method employs a hollow micro-cylinder that is irradiated at the outer wall by a high intensity, ultra-short laser pulse. The relativistic electrons produced are injected through the cylinder's wall, spread evenly on the inner wall surface of the cylinder, and initiate a hot plasma expansion. A transient radial electric field (107–1010 V/m) is associated with the expansion. The transient electrostatic field induces the focusing and the selection of a narrow band component out of the broadband poly-energetic energy spectrum of the protons generated from a separate laser irradiated thin foil target that are directed axially through the cylinder. The energy selection is tunable by changing the timing of the two laser pulses. Computer simulations carried out for similar parameters as used in the experiments explain the working of the micro-lens.

Based on transferring energy from multiple pump beams into one Stokes beam using Brillouin amplification, a serial coherent laser beam combination scheme is presented, which has many advantages, such as, simple structure, low cost, ease of adjustment, higher load capability, scalable easily, etc. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the combination of several beams using this method is theoretically possible. But in practice, the amplification of high power Stokes beam is a key problem to solve. In this paper, the amplification of Stokes beam whose power is higher than the pump beam is first studied and proved experimentally. Coupling the two laser beams by this method is proved experimentally, and the coupling efficiency reaches more than 80%. Then the feasibility of multiple beams combination based on Brillouin amplification is analyzed and tested theoretically.

This paper presents cross-sections and collision strengths for proton-impact excitation of optically forbidden transitions in Al10+. These data, calculated in the impact-parameter formalism, covering the expected range of energies/temperature in laser-produced plasmas, are believed to represent the first such detailed treatment of this system. The cross-sections decrease with energy as E−1, while the collision strengths tend to finite limits as the energy of colliding proton becomes infinitely great. This high-energy limiting value has been evaluated combining results from the semi-classical treatment of ion-impact excitation processes and the Born approximation for high-energy behavior of the collision strength. The effective target size has been estimated from the calculated high-energy limit of the collision strength in the Born approximation.

In fast ignition research, the clarification of core heating mechanism is one of the most critical issues. To understand and identify the crucial physics in fast heating, we developed the fast ignition integrated interconnecting code FI3 and carried out the core heating simulations for fast heating experiments with cone-guided targets. It was found that the scale length of the pre-plasma at the inner-surface of the cone and the density gap at the contact surface between the cone tip and the imploded core plasma strongly affect the efficiency of core heating. In the case of heating laser with intensity of 1020 W/cm2 and duration of 1 ps, the pre-plasma scale length of 1.5 µm is optimum for the core heating; the dense core is heated up to 0.86 keV. In the double scale length case (long scale of ~5 µm in underdense region and short scale of ~ 1 µm in overdense region), of which generation due to the pre-pulse irradiation of heating pulse is observed at the radiation–hydro simulations, the dense core is heated more efficiently than single short scale length cases. The contribution of fast ions to the core heating is also discussed.

Theoretical and experimental studies of radiative properties of hot dense plasmas that are used as soft X-ray sources have been carried out depending on the plasma composition. Important features of the theoretical model, which can be used for complex materials, are discussed. An optimizing procedure that can determine an effective complex material to produce optically thick plasma by laser interaction with a thick solid target is applied. The efficiency of the resulting material is compared with the efficiency of other composite materials that have previously been evaluated theoretically. It is shown that the optimizing procedure does, in practice, find higher radiation efficiency materials than have been found by previous authors. Similar theoretical research is performed for the optically thin plasma produced from exploding wires. Theoretical estimations of radiative efficiency are compared with experimental data that are obtained from measurements of X-pinch radiation energy yield using two exploding wire materials, NiCr and Alloy 188. It is shown that theoretical calculations agree well with the experimental data.

In this paper, authors have studied the growing interaction of the rippled laser beam with upper hybrid mode leading to enhanced Raman scattering for collisional plasma. The presence of ripple leads to additional coupling between the rippled laser beam and electrostatic upper hybrid mode via modified background density. Computational results show the focusing of the upper hybrid wave for the chosen set of plasma parameters. With coupling being strong, the excited upper hybrid wave further interacts with rippled laser beam and give rise to enhanced Raman scattering. The significant role of collisional parameter S is also highlighted in the present investigation. An expression for the scattered power is derived and the effect of the externally applied static magnetic field on enhancement of scattered power is observed. We conclude from present analysis that the effect of the increased magnetic field is useful in suppressing the growth of the ripple.

In several experiments, faster ions were produced from the backside of solid targets irradiated by powerful laser pulses. The ion acceleration was considered due to the negative electrostatic sheath formed on the backside of the target (TNSA), or to the expansion wave starting at the backside surface, or to the expansion wave and to its embedded electrostatic rarefaction shock. In this experiment, ions have been generated by transferring energy to a controlled amount of mass before the target become transparent by gas dynamic expansion (controlled amount of mass mode (CAM)). The targets used were thin transparent disks causally isolated from the holder to trim down, during the interaction process, unwanted effects due to the surrounding parts. Two kinds of target corresponding to a different set of parameters were designed (LARGE and SMALL). Both targets were conceived to survive, in the actual contrast conditions, to the low power pulse forerunning the giant laser pulse, bigger margin but lower performances being assigned to LARGE. For comparison standard square foils under the same focusing conditions, were also studied (LARGE-LIKE and SMALL-LIKE irradiation).

Our recent experimental results demonstrate that the formation of plasma jets is a fundamental process accompanying the laser produced plasma expansion, if a massive planar target with relatively high atomic number is irradiated by a defocused laser beam. In this paper some new results on the influence of target irradiation conditions on plasma jet parameters are presented. The experiment was carried out at the PALS iodine laser facility, with the third harmonic beam of the pulse duration of 250 ps (FWHM). The beam energies varied in the range of 13–160 J, the focal spot radii in the range of 35–600 µm. The planar massive targets used in the experiment were made of Cu, Ag and Ta. For measurements of the electron density evolution a three frame interferometric system was employed. The jets were observed in the whole range of the laser energy used. The initial velocities of the plasma jets produced in the reported experiment reached the value of up to 7·107 cm/s, the jets were up to 4 mm long including the jet pedestal and about 400 µm in diameter. Calculations of the efficiency of the plasma jet production show that it decreases with increasing the laser energy.

Self-trapping, stopping, and absorption of an ultrashort ultraintense linearly polarized laser pulse in a finite plasma slab of near-critical density is investigated by particle-in-cell simulation. As in the underdense plasma, an electron cavity is created by the pressure of the transmitted part of the light pulse and it traps the latter. Since the background plasma is at near-critical density, no wake plasma oscillation is created. The propagating self-trapped light rapidly comes to a stop inside the slab. Subsequent ion Coulomb explosion of the stopped cavity leads to explosive expulsion of its ions and formation of an extended channel having extremely low plasma density. The energetic Coulomb-exploded ions form shock layers of high density and temperature at the channel boundary. In contrast to a propagating pulse in a lower density plasma, here the energy of the trapped light is deposited onto a stationary and highly localized region of the plasma. This highly localized energy-deposition process can be relevant to the fast ignition scheme of inertial fusion.

The new international facility for antiproton and ion research (FAIR), at Darmstadt, Germany, will accelerate beams of all stable isotopes from protons up to uranium with unprecedented intensities (of the order of 1012 ions per spill). Planned future experiments include production of exotic nuclei by fragmentation/fission of projectile ions of different species with energies up to 1.5 GeV/u at the proposed super conducting fragment separator, Super-FRS. In such experiments, the production target must survive multiple irradiations over an extended period of time, which in case of such beam intensities is highly questionable. Previous work showed that with full intensity of the uranium beam, a solid graphite target will be destroyed after being irradiated once, unless the beam focal spot is made very large that will result in extremely poor transmission and resolution of the secondary isotopes. An alternative to a solid target could be a windowless liquid jet target. We have carried out three-dimensional numerical simulations to study the problem of target heating and propagation of pressure in a liquid Li target. These first calculations have shown that a liquid lithium target may survive the full uranium beam intensity for a reasonable size focal spot.

Intense and stable laser operation with Ni-like Zr and Ag was demonstrated at pump energies between 2 J and 5 J energy from the PHELIX pre-amplifier section. A novel single mirror focusing scheme for the TCE x-ray laser (XRL) has been successfully implemented by the LIXAM/MBI/GSI collaboration under different pump geometries. This shows potential for an extension to shorter XRL wavelength. Generation of high quality XRL beams for XRL spectroscopy of highly charged ions is an important issue within the scientific program of PHELIX. Long range perspective is the study of nuclear properties of radioactive isotopes within the FAIR project.

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) will serve as an injector to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN as well as it is used to accelerate and extract proton beams for fixed target experiments. In either case, safety of operation is a very important issue that needs to be carefully addressed. This paper presents detailed numerical simulations of the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic response of solid targets made of copper and tungsten that experience impact of a full SPS beam comprized of 288 bunches of 450 GeV/c protons. These simulations have shown that the material will be seriously damaged if such an accident happens. An interesting outcome of this work is that the SPS can be used to carry out dedicated experiments to study High Energy Density (HED) states in matter.

The first stage of the petawatt excimer laser project started at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, implements a development of multiterawatt hybrid GARPUN-MTW laser facility for generation of ultra-high intensity subpicosecond ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses. Under this project, a multi-stage e-beam-pumped 100-J, 100-ns GARPUN KrF laser was upgraded with a femtosecond Ti:Sapphire front-end, to produce combined subpicosecond/nanosecond laser pulses with variable time delay. Attractive possibility to amplify simultaneously short and long pulses in the same large-scale KrF amplifiers is analyzed with regard to the fast-ignition, inertial confinement fusion problem. Detailed description of hybrid laser system is presented with synchronized KrF and Ti:Sapphire master oscillators. Based on gain and absorption measurements at GARPUN amplifier and numerical simulations with a quasi-stationary code, we are predicting that 1.6 J can be obtained in a short pulse at hybrid GARPUN-MTW Ti:Sapphire/KrF laser facility, combined with several tens of joules in nanosecond pulse. Amplified spontaneous emission, which is responsible for the pre-pulse formation on a target, was also investigated: its acceptable level can be provided by properly choosing staged gain or loading the amplifiers by quasi-steady laser radiation. Fluorescence and transient absorption spectra of Ar/Kr/F2 mixtures conventionally used in KrF amplifiers were recorded to find out the possibility for femtosecond pulse amplification at the broadband Kr2F (42Γ → 1,2 2Γ) transition, which benefits in 100 times higher saturation energy density than for KrF (B → X) transition.

Laser-generated plasma is obtained in high vacuum (10−7 mbar) by irradiation of metallic targets (Al, Cu, Ta) with laser beam with intensities of the order of 1010 W/cm2. An Nd:Yag laser operating at 1064 nm wavelength, 9 ns pulse width, and 500 mJ maximum pulse energy is used. Time of flight measurements of ion emission along the direction normal to the target surface were performed with an ion collector. Measurements with and without a 0.1 Tesla magnetic field, directed along the normal to the target surface, have been taken for different target-detector distances and for increasing laser pulse intensity. Results have demonstrated that the magnetic field configuration creates an electron trap in front of the target surface along the axial direction. Electric fields inside the trap induce ion acceleration; the presence of electron bundles not only focuses the ion beam but also increases its energy, mean charge state and current. The explanation of this phenomenon can be found in the electric field modification inside the non-equilibrium plasma because of an electron bunching that increases the number of electron-ion interactions. The magnetic field, in fact, modifies the electric field due to the charge separation between the clouds of fast electrons, many of which remain trapped in the magnetic hole, and slow ions, ejected from the ablated target; moreover it increases the number of electron-ion interactions producing higher charge states.

An approach to produce efficient and economical hydrogen, which is one of the solutions of future energy, by inertial fusion energy reactor is discussed. This fusion reactor is with magnetic field such as mirror machine and graphite solid blanket. Neutrons and charged particles from nuclear reactions are separated from each other by this magnetic field. This results in hydrogen production efficiently in a solid blanket of high temperature with a breakeven of electricity by direct conversion of charged particle. The output of hydrogen may meet not only economical issue but also ecological issues.

In this paper, we describe the experimental validation of the technique of correction of wavefront aberration in the middle of the laser amplifying chain. This technique allows the correction of the aberrations from the first part of the laser system, and the pre-compensation of the aberrations built in the second part. This approach will allow an effective aberration management in the laser chain, to protect the optical surfaces and optimize performances, and is the only possible approach for multi-petawatt laser system from the technical and economical point of view. This approach is now possible after the introduction of new deformable mirrors with lower static aberrations and higher dynamic than the standard devices.

A high voltage pulse Tesla transformer with a coupling coefficient of 0.75 was designed and experimentally investigated. The transformer was employed to charge a spiral water pulse forming line (PFL) in a high current electron beam accelerator, and was featured by its compactness, stability, and reliability. When the primary input voltage is 55 kV, the transformer can charge the PFL to 720 kV with an energy conversion efficiency of 36%. The formulas for calculating the primary and secondary inductances of the transformer were deduced, with which the main parameters of the transformer were calculated theoretically. The distributions for electrical and magnetic fields in the transformer were obtained by the simulations of calculation. In addition, the process of an accelerator of the transformer charging a spiral PFL was simulated through the Pspice software to get the waveform of charging voltage, the diode voltage, and diode current of accelerator. The theoretical and simulated results agree with the experimental results.