Oxford Centre for High Energy Density Science (OxCHEDS)

Abstract:

33 mm plasma channels produced in a gas-filled capillary discharge and 40 TW, 40 fs laser pulses were used to produce GeV electron beams in a multi-table-top setup.

Abstract:

This paper reviews the important schemes that have been investigated thus far in fast ignition research. Integral experiments for fast ignition research have been conducted utilizing various schemes: (a) double-pulse experiments with two 100-ps pulses injected to a compressed core, (b) gold cone-guided implosion with 100-TW laser pulse heating, and (c) imploded core heated by both a 100-TW and petawatt laser pulses through gold cones. Reviewing these results, several important issues were raised for further development of fast ignition research. The imploded core heated by a petawatt laser through a gold cone showed a 103 D-D neutron increase compared to the one with only the CD shell implosion.

Abstract:

In recent fast ignitor research, neutron measurements have become increasingly important not only to understand the ultraintense laser-plasma interaction physics associated with ion acceleration and energy transport processes in dense plasmas but also the characterization of the plasma temperature in integrated experiments, as summarized in this paper. New technologies that are relevant to the next-generation integrated fast ignition experiments are also reviewed. These will become increasingly important in the next few years as second-generation multikilojoule petawatt facilities come online and the detection environment becomes increasingly hostile, particularly if, as anticipated, the generated neutron fluxes begin to approach energy breakeven conditions.

Abstract:

We report the observation of monoenergetic electron beams (dE/E < 5%) produced by the interaction of a 12TW, 40fs laser pulse with underdense plasma, in contrast to all previous experiments, which produced energy spreads ~100%. © 2005 Optical Society of America.