Experimental studies of the ablative acceleration of thin foils as carried out on the “Mishen” device (Nd laser, λ = 1·06μm, 3 nsec pulses) are reported. The plasma corona in the range of power densities 1013–1014 W/cm2 is shown to absorb 80–90% of the laser beam energy, the classical collisional absorption mechanism being the main one. Jet-like and filamentary structures are observed in the laser-plasma interaction; however, the main plasma parameters are found to be independent of the presence (or absence) of such structures. The measured hydrodynamic efficiency of stable ablative acceleration in plane geometry is ≲5%. The production of high-speed cumulative jets with irradiated thin-wall hollow conical targets is reported as an example of a non-traditional ablative acceleration geometry.

The characteristics of a laser plasma created by a high intensity UV excimer laser were investigated. The UV laser plasma was used as a switch for control of the laser pulse duration for the first time. An X-ray preionized XeCl laser pulse duration can be changed from 10 to 85 ns. This technique is useful for many applications of excimer lasers requiring various pulse durations.

1-D computer simulations have been performed to study the influence of X-rays preheating on the compression of spherical laser-produced plasmas. The targets are glass microballoons filled with Neon at the initial pressure 10 bars. It is assumed that the only significant absorption process in the Neon is by inverse bremsstrahlung absorption. The results indicate that the radiative preheating energy has a nonnegligible effect on the compression, and a study of the Lawson criterion shows that this effect is more important for high-Z target shell materials and for thicker shells.

Experiments have been performed at the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Lab., UK. using novel techniques in which laser produced plasmas have been diagnosed by measurements of the charged thermonuclear reaction products. Two types of experiment are being reported here. Firstly, thermonuclear alpha particles from an exploding pusher target have been used to determine the growth of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability in a separate laser driven planar foil. The resulting alpha particle range loss distributions provide a direct measurement of the foil thickness distribution and hence the instability. The R–T instability has been observed in a number of foils with range losses varying between almost zero to over lOμm. Secondly, a thermonuclear particle backlighting technique has been used in the measurement of the stopping power of hot plasma for different materials. The ratio of plasma stopping power to that of the cold material is measured and compared to a value obtained from theoretical modelling. The solid state nuclear track detector CR–39 has been used as a diagnostic for these experiments. A sophisticated image analysis system has been developed to enhance and improve data recovery.

The problem of heavy-ion beam energy conversion into the plasma self-radiation of the spherical target is considered by using the radiative conductivity approximation. It is shown that there is a single parameter γ which determines the spherical ‘corona’ structure and has the meaning of the ratio: the ion range/the effective heat range. The conversion coefficient increases with the increase in the parameter γ and becomes ∼ 1, when γ ≃ 102. Typical beam and target parameters of modern HIF designs correspond to γ ≃ 10 and conversion coefficients >50%. Thus, at quasistationary stage of the ‘corona’ expansion the target acceleration and implosion regime is basically the radiative one.

The paper reports on a method of producing spherical targets with a light ablator layer having a density of 0·2g/cm3 and a thickness 10μm. This method for obtaining polystyrene microballoons and polyethylene microballs works for hemispheres made from plastics and metals with diameters from 600 to 1200 μm and wall thicknesses from 10 to 50 μm. It also provides a way to assemble cascade targets.

Stark broadening of Lyman lines in high density plasmas is treated theoretically to study the effects of the fields inside the plasmas, the microfield, and the oscillating fields from Langmuir waves. Resonance features are expected to be observed from the line profiles, especially about the microfield.