With the aim to overcome the problems of climatic changes and rising ocean levels, one option is to produce large-scale sustainable energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen and other very light nuclei similar to the energy source of the sun. Sixty years of worldwide research for the ignition of the heavy hydrogen isotopes deuterium (D) and tritium (T) have come close to a breakthrough for ignition. The problem with the DT fusion is that generated neutrons are producing radioactive waste. One exception as the ideal clean fusion process – without neutron production – is the fusion of hydrogen (H) with the boron isotope 11B11 (B11). In this paper, we have mapped out our research based on recent experiments and simulations for a new energy source. We suggest how HB11 fusion for a reactor can be used instead of the DT option. We have mapped out our HB11 fusion in the following way: (i) The acceleration of a plasma block with a laser beam with the power and time duration of the order of 10 petawatts and one picosecond accordingly. (ii) A plasma confinement by a magnetic field of the order of a few kiloteslas created by a second laser beam with a pulse duration of a few nanoseconds (ns). (iii) The highly increased fusion of HB11 relative to present DT fusion is possible due to the alphas avalanche created in this process. (iv) The conversion of the output charged alpha particles directly to electricity. (v) To prove the above ideas, our simulations show for example that 14 milligram HB11 can produce 300 kWh energy if all achieved results are combined for the design of an absolutely clean power reactor producing low-cost energy.

Exceptionally high reaction gains of hydrogen protons measured with the boron isotope 11 are compared with other fusion reactions. This is leading to the conclusion that secondary avalanche reactions are happening and confirming the results of high-gain, neutron-free, clean, safe, low-cost, and long-term available energy. The essential basis is the unusual non-thermal block-ignition scheme with picosecond laser pulses of extremely high powers above the petawatt range.

The efficient transfer of angular orbital momentum from circularly polarized laser pulses into ions of solid density targets is investigated with different geometries using particle-in-cell simulations. The detailed electron and ion dynamics presented focus upon the energy and momentum conversion efficiency. It is found that the momentum transfer is more efficient for spiral targets and the maximum value is obtained when the spiral step is equal to twice the laser wavelength. This study reveals that the angular momentum distribution of ions strongly depends up on the initial target shape and density.

A new laser-driven ion acceleration mechanism has been identified using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. This mechanism allows ion acceleration to GeV energies at vastly reduced laser intensities compared with earlier acceleration schemes. The new mechanism, dubbed “Laser Break-out Afterburner” (BOA), enables the acceleration of carbon ions to greater than 2 GeV energy at a laser intensity of only 1021 W/cm2, an intensity that has been realized in existing laser systems. Other techniques for achieving these energies in the literature rely upon intensities of 1024 W/cm2 or above, i.e., 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than any laser intensity that has been demonstrated to date. Also, the BOA mechanism attains higher energy and efficiency than target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA), where the scaling laws predict carbon energies of 50 MeV/u for identical laser conditions. In the early stages of the BOA, the carbon ions accelerate as a quasi-monoenergetic bunch with median energy higher than that realized recently experimentally.

We observe experimentally periodic proton beam filamentation in laser-produced dense plasma using multilayered (CH–Al–CH) sandwich targets. The accelerated MeV proton beams from these targets exhibit periodic frozen filaments up to 5–10 µm as a result of resistive Weibel instabilities in the expanding plasma. The evolution of strong self-generated resistive magnetic fields at the targets interface is attributed to such plasma effects, which are supported, by our theory and simulations. We suggest that the resistive Weibel instability could be effectively employed to understand the evolution of magnetic fields in laser-generated plasma in the astrophysics scenario or the advanced fast igniter approach of the inertial confinement fusion.

A shock wave is a discontinuous surface that connects supersonic flow with subsonic flow. After a shock wave, flow velocity is reduced, and pressure and temperature increase; entropy especially increases across a shock wave. Therefore, flow is in nonequilibrium, and irreversible processes occur inside the shock layer. The thickness of a shock wave in neutral gas is of the order of the mean free path of the fluid particle. A shock wave also appears in magnetized plasma. Provided that when the plasma flow is parallel to the magnetic field, a shock wave appears if the governing equation for velocity potential is in hyperbolic type in relation with the Mach number and the Alfvén number. When the flow is perpendicular to the magnetic field, the Maxwell stress, in addition to the pressure, plays a role in the shock wave in plasma. When the plasma temperature is so high, as the plasma becomes collision-free, another type of shock wave appears. In a collision-free shock wave, gyromotions of electrons around the magnetic field lines cause the shock formation instead of collisions in a collision-dominant plasma or neutral gas. Regardless of a collision-dominant or collision-free shock wave, the fluid that passes through the shock wave is heated in addition to being compressed. In inertial confinement fusion, the fuel must be compressed. Really, implosion motion performs fuel compression. A shock wave, appearing in the process of implosion, compresses the fuel. The shock wave, however, heats the fuel more intensively, and it makes it difficult to compress the fuel further because high temperatures invite high pressure. Adiabatic compression of the fuel is the desired result during the implosion, without the formation of a shock wave.

We present a theory for describing the inner structure of the electron bunch in the bubble regime starting from a random distribution of electrons inside the bubble and subsequently minimizing the system's energy. Consequently, we find a filament-like structure in the direction of propagation that is surrounded by various shells consisting of further electrons. If we specify a two-dimensional (2D) initial structure, we observe a hexagonal structure for a high number of particles, corresponding to the close packing of spheres in two dimensions. The 2D structures are in agreement with the equilibrium slice model.

A new method to determine the peak intensity of focused relativistic laser pulses is experimentally justified. It is based on the measurement of spectra of electrons, accelerated in the beam waist. The detected electrons were emitted from the plasma, generated by nonlinear ionization of low-density gases (helium, argon, and krypton) in the focal area of a laser beam with the peak intensity >1020 W/cm2. The measurements revealed generation of particles with the maximum energy of a few MeV, observed at a small angle relative to the beam axis. The results are supported by numerical particle-in-cell simulations of a laser–low-density plasma interaction. The peak intensity in the focal region derived from experimental data reaches the value of 2.5 × 1020 W/cm2.

Intense heavy ion beams from the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany) accelerator facilities, together with two high energy laser systems: petawatt high energy laser for ion experiments (PHELIX) and nanosecond high energy laser for ion experiments (NHELIX) are a unique combination to facilitate pioneering beam-plasma interaction experiments, to generate and probe high-energy-density (HED) matter and to address basic physics issues associated with heavy ion driven inertial confinement fusion. In one class of experiments, the laser will be used to generate plasma and the ion beam will be used to study the energy loss of energetic ions in ionized matter, and to probe the physical state of the laser-generated plasma. In another class of experiments, the intense heavy ion beam will be employed to create a sample of HED matter and the laser beam, together with other diagnostic tools, will be used to explore the properties of these exotic states of matter. The existing heavy ion synchrotron facility, SIS18, deliver an intense uranium beam that deposit about 1 kJ/g specific energy in solid matter. Using this beam, experiments have recently been performed where solid lead foils had been heated and a brightness temperature on the order of 5000 K was measured, using a fast multi-channel pyrometer that has been developed jointly by GSI and IPCP Chernogolovka. It is expected that the future heavy ion facility, facility for antiprotons and ion research (FAIR) will provide compressed beam pulses with an intensity that exceeds the current beam intensities by three orders of magnitude. This will open up the possibility to explore the thermophysical and transport properties of HED matter in a regime that is very difficult to access using the traditional methods of shock compression. Beam plasma interaction experiments using dense plasmas with a Γ-parameter between 0.5 and 1.5 have also been carried out. This dense Ar-plasma was generated by explosively driven shockwaves and showed enhanced energy loss for Xe and Ar ions in the energy range between 5.9 to 11.4 MeV.