Computations for nonlinear force driven plasma blocks by picosecond laser pulses for fusion

Yu Cang, Frederick Osman, Heinrich Hora, Jie Zhang, Jan Badziak, Jerzy Wolowski, Karel Jungwirth, Karel Rohlena, Jiri Ullschmied

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    25 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The concept of the fast ignitor for laser fusion has led to some modifications in applying petawatt-picosecond (PW-ps) laser-produced high intensity particle beams to ignite deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel. Some very anomalous measurements of ion emission from targets irradiated by picosecond laser pulses led to the development of a skin depth interaction scheme where a defined control of prepulses is necessary. Based on these experimental facts, we have applied a onedimensional two-fluid hydrodynamic code to understand how the nonlinear ponderomotive force generates two plasma blocks, one moving against the laser light (ablation) and the other moving into the target. This compressed block produces an ion current density of above 10 11 A cm-2 and an ion energy of about 100 keV. This may be a rather promising option to use PW-ps laser pulses for igniting fusion in solid density DT fuel, realizing very high gain controlled fusion reactions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)35-51
    Number of pages17
    JournalJournal of Plasma Physics
    Volume71
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2005

    Keywords

    • fusion
    • ignitor
    • laser fusion
    • laser pulses, ultrashort
    • picosecond pulses
    • plasma dynamics

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