Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
The present review is of the experimental investigations on laser-plasma interaction being carried out in past years at IAE. Experiments were conducted on the “Mishen” facility. The laser system of Mishen consists of two channels with output beam parameters as follows: the main beam—output energy 100–200 J (λ = 1.054 μm) in 3-ns pulse, divergence ∼2 × 10-4 rad, contrast ratio ∼106, power density at the target surface ∼1013–1014 W/cm2; the diagnostic beam–output energy 10–20 J (λ = 1.054 μm) and 5–10 J (λ = 0.53 μm) in 0.3-ns pulse, divergence ∼10-4 rad, power density 1013 - 1014 W/cm2. Our aim in this experiment is to study the different aspects of the ICF processes in flat geometry. The main issues of our studies are hydrodynamic aspects, including acceleration efficiency, high-velocity impact in cascade targets, hydrostability, and X-ray physicsconversion efficiency, heat transfer, and X-ray-driven targets.