In this study, we experimentally evaluate the ion transportation through a cone guide target, which accelerates ions up to MeV energies via target normal sheath acceleration, and transports them onto the position of imploding fuel in the fast ignition scenario of nuclear fusion. We measured the electric and magnetic fields (EM-fields) induced by return current streaming along the cone wall by proton radiography, and we report that the EM-fields are predominantly induced within a temporal window up to 30 ps after the laser injection. The magnitude of the electric field is maximized around 13 ps, reaching $4.0\times 10^{10} \mathrm {V}\ \mathrm {m}^{-1}$, when the magnetic field is below 200 T. The present scheme provides insights on the EM-fields evaluation in the time region that is difficult to treat with simulations due to the computing resources.

A mixed microstructure of antiphase domains (APD) and fine lamellar structure were introduced in a Ti-39at%Al single crystal and it was examined whether the APD hardening works even in nano-scaled lamellar structures. The hardness increases with decreasing APD size even where the L is smaller than 100 nm below which the hardening by lamellar refining saturates. The mechanism of the additivity of strengthening by APD and lamellar structure is discussed in the context of the geometries of slip direction, lamellar boundaries and APD boundaries (APDBs). For {1100}<1120> prism slip (the easiest slip system of α2-Ti3Al), the lamellar boundaries are parallel to the slip direction, and therefore they interrupt the motion of screw dislocations effectively. On the other hand, APDBs inclined from lamellar boundaries can effectively obstruct the dislocation motion regardless of the dislocation character because the shear of such APDBs results in the formation of step-like APDBs on the slip-plane and requires additional stress for dislocation motion whereas APDBs parallel to the slip direction can be sheared without forming such a step-like APDB. Accordingly, APDs and lamellar structure can contribute to the strengthening complementarily.

We studied antiphase domain (APD) growth and lamellar structure formation during isothermal annealing of Ti-39at%Al single crystals at α2+γ dual phase temperature after quenching from α single phase state, intending to obtain a APD/lamellae mixed microstructure and to examine whether such a microstructure provides a strength higher than that obtained only by refining lamellar structure. The effect of plastic deformation prior to the annealing was also examined expecting a acceleration of γ lamellae formation through a preferential nucleation of γ-plates at dislocations. The lower was the annealing temperature, the smaller both the APD size and the lamellar spacing at the moment of a homogeneous lamellar structure formation tended to be, although naturally both the APD growth and the γ lamellae formation were slower. However, the APD size in the homogeneous lamellar structure was no smaller than 400 nm. A structure with finer APDs and finer lamellar structure was obtained by deforming the crystal before annealing since the lamellar structure formation was accelerated and the time for APD growth before the lamellar structure formation was shortened. For instance, a structure with an average lamellar spacing of 88 nm and an average APD size of 214 nm was obtained by deforming the crystals to 10 % plastic strain and subsequently annealing at 1073 K for 1×104 s, while no γ plate was obtained only by such an annealing without deformation.