In this paper we report on an experimental study of high harmonic radiation generated in nanometer-scale foil targets irradiated under normal incidence. The experiments constitute the first unambiguous observation of odd-numbered relativistic harmonics generated by the v × B component of the Lorentz force verifying a long predicted property of solid target harmonics. Simultaneously the observed harmonic spectra allow in-situ extraction of the target density in an experimental scenario which is of utmost interest for applications such as ion acceleration by the radiation pressure of an ultraintense laser.

Experiments of the return current post installed X-pinches were carried out on the 1-MA “QiangGuang-1” facility with the purpose of understanding X-pinch characteristics under this setup and establishing X-pinch backlighting diagnostics for the wire-array Z-pinches. Different wire-array loads along with the two-wire 30 µm Mo X-pinch backlighter were tested. The X-pinches emit the X-ray radiation with the burst time variation of ± 4 ns and the bright spot size of  ~30 µm. X-ray backlighting shadowgraphy images of the over-mass and radiation-suppressed Z-pinch wire array were obtained.

Pulsed laser induced plasma in water produces multiple bubbles with the passage of laser pulse. Shadowgraphy and beam deflection set-up is used to study the temporal and spatial evolution of these bubbles as a function of distance from the laser focus. The formation of multiple bubbles, bubble coalescence, and their effect onto cavity dynamics is reported. Bubble radius and the corresponding velocities from shadowgraphy is used to calculate the maximum gas pressure inside the bubble using Neppiras model. The maximum pressure inside the cavity is found to be 0.4 MPa at the laser focus.

The characteristics of high energy protons generated from thin carbon-proton mixture targets via circularly polarized intense laser pulses are investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that the density ratio n between protons and carbon ions plays a key role in determining the acceleration dynamics. For low n values, the protons are mainly accelerated by the radiation pressure acceleration mechanism, resulting in a quasi-monoenergetic energy spectrum. The radiation pressure acceleration mechanism is enhanced by the directed-Coulomb-explosion of carbon ions which gives a high proton maximum energy, though a large energy spread, for high n values. From a proton acceleration point of view, the role of heavy ions is very important. The fact that the proton energy spectrum is controllable based on the target composition is especially useful in real experimental environments.

In this paper, the interaction of intense lasers with overdense plasmas is investigated. Based on the modified nonlinear wave equation describing the interaction of intense laser and overdense plasmas in nonparaxial region, due to the influence of off-axis components a2 and a4 in nonparaxial region, we first find the three-splitted laser beam intensity profile, besides, discuss detailed the forming mathematic and some possible physical conditions of the single highly self-focusing beam profile, two-splitted beam, and three-splitted beam profile. In addition, we also investigate the influence of the parameters βE02 and ρ2 on splitted beam profiles.

The inelastic interaction between heavy ions and an electron plasma in the presence of an intense radiation field (RF) is investigated. The stopping power of the test ion averaged with a period of the RF has been calculated assuming that ω0 > ωp, where ω0 is the frequency of the RF and ωp is the plasma frequency. In order to highlight the effect of the radiation field we present a comparison of our analytical and numerical results obtained for nonzero RF with those for vanishing RF. It has been shown that the RF may strongly reduce the mean energy loss for slow ions while increasing it at high–velocities. Moreover, it has been shown, that acceleration of the projectile ion due to the RF is expected at high–velocities and in the high–intensity limit of the RF, when the quiver velocity of the plasma electrons exceeds the ion velocity.

We have identified a general final compression section for HIF drivers, the section between accelerator and the target. The beams are given a head to tail velocity tilt at the beginning of the section for longitudinal compression, while going through bends that direct it to the target at specific angle. The aim is to get the beams compressed while maintaining a small centroid off-set after the bends. We used a specific example, 1 MJ driver with 500 MeV Rubidium + 1 ion beams. We studied the effect of minimizing dispersion using different bend strategies, and came up with a beamline point design with adiabatic bends. We also identified some factors that lead to emittance growth as well as the minimum pulse length and spot size on the target.

In the present analysis we study the time dependent, self-consistent propagation of nonlinear electromagnetic pulses in plasmas. Interactions of the electromagnetic pulses and wakefields are fully taken into account, from which one obtains accurate information on pulse time dependent dynamics and stability. While wide pulses may or may not retain the localized shape depending on their power, narrower pulses always tend to delocalize as time evolves.

Nitrides and/or carbonitrides formation of high efficiency was found on titanium target under irradiation of high-intensity pulsed ion beam (HIPIB) with a few shots at a low pressure of 10−2 Pa order, which is extraordinary in comparison with conventional thermo-chemical diffusion process such as gas nitriding and/or carbonitriding of metals necessarily heated at high temperatures during a processing time of hours. The underlying mechanism of the nitrides and carbonitrides formation on titanium targets was explored by a comparative study on three typical HIPIB sources, i.e., TEMP-6, TEMP-4M, and ETIGO-II, varying the irradiation intensity within several J/cm2 per shot of a 60–70 ns pulse duration and the shot number of similar ion species. It is revealed that ambient gases and ion source material are the main sources providing the nitrogen and carbon species for the phase transformation on titanium target at the low pressures, whereas the ion species of HIPIB composition is negligible at a low implantation dose of 1013–1014 ions/cm2. The adsorbed gaseous species, the deposited layer of the ion source material, and in-situ formed compound top layer from reactions between ablation plasma and the ambient species during HIPIB irradiation, can be effectively incorporated into the irradiated target surfaces under a controlled HIPIB-target interaction.

The aim of the present work is the further development of the thermodynamics of hydrogen-like plasmas with densities on the order of 1027–1029 m−3 at temperatures of 106−108 K. Therefore, the Jacobi-Padé approximation for the so-called relative energy level shifts is applied to a quasineutral plasma consisting of six-fold and five-fold ionized carbon atoms and electrons. The relative energy level shift of the five-fold ionized carbon is determined by the difference between Coulomb and Debye potential, and by the kinetic energy of the particles. The shift caused by the kinetic energy (KES) has to be found considering the momentum space of the particles, so that nine-fold integrals in phase space have to be calculated. Quantum-physically, former numerical calculations of KES were only performed for particle states with zero angular quantum numbers. In the present work, a detailed, to a large extent analytical analysis of the KES is given for any angular quantum number, enabling also an improved analysis of future further-developed Jacobi-Padé formulae. Relative energy shifts of the bound-states of the fivefold ionized carbon are numerically obtained as function of the Mott parameter of the plasma. Dependencies of the shifts on main quantum numbers and orbital quantum numbers are discussed.

We propose an experiment to test the persistence of the polarization in a fusion process, using a terawatt laser hitting a polarized high density (HD) target. The polarized protons and deuterons heated in the plasma induced by the laser have a significant probability to fuse producing a 3He and a γ-ray or a neutron in the final state. The angular distribution of the radiated γ-rays and the change in the corresponding total cross-section are related to the polarization persistence, but the resulting signal turns out to be weak. By comparison, the neutrons are produced hadronically with a larger cross-section and it is much easier to detect them. A significant reduction of the cross-section by parallel polarization of the deuterons as well as a structured angular distribution of the emitted neutrons is reliably predicted by the theory. Therefore, it is expected that the corresponding signal on the neutron counting rate could be seen experimentally. Magnetic fields, relaxation times and possibilities of local investigations are discussed.

Proton ion acceleration via laser-generated plasma is investigated at relatively low laser pulse intensity, on the order of 1010 W/cm2. Time-of-flight technique is employed to measure the ion energy and the relative yield. An ion collector and an ion energy analyzer are used with this aim and to distinguish the number of charge states of the produced ions. The kinetic energy and the emission yield are measured through a consolidated theory, which assumes that the ion emission follows the Coulomb-Boltzmann-Shifted function. The proton stream is generated by thin and thick hydrogenated targets and it is dependent on the free electron states, which increase the laser absorption coefficient and the ion acceleration. The maximum proton energy, of about 200 eV, and the maximum proton amount can be obtained with thick metallic hydrogenated materials, such as the titanium hydrate TiH2.

The effect of relativistic nonlinearity on the guiding of a laser beam in a plasma channel formed by a short ionizing pulse is investigated. The plasma channel formed is axially non-uniform due to self defocusing of the prepulse. When a second delayed laser pulse propagates through the plasma channel formed by the prepulse, the competition between refraction and diffraction results into alternate convergence and divergence of the guided beam. Second-order nonlinear differential equations for the beam width parameter of the prepulse and guided pulse are derived by moment theory approach. The effect of the guided pulse intensities as well as the axial nonuniformity of the plasma channel on the propagation of the guided laser pulse has been investigated. Relativistic laser guidance up to several Rayleigh lengths is observed.

The shock waves in laser plasma interaction have played an important role in the study of inertial fusion energy (IFE) since the 1970's and perhaps earlier. The interaction of laser, or any other high power beam, induced shock waves with matter was one of the foundations of the target design in IFE. Even the importance of shock wave collision was studied and its importance forgotten. In due course, the shock waves were taken as granted and became “second fiddle” in IFE scenario. The analysis of the shock wave in the context of IFE is revived in this paper. At the forefront of the past decade the concept of fast ignition was introduced. The different ideas of fast ignition are summarized with special emphasis on shock wave fast ignition. The ignition is achieved by launching a shock wave during the final stages of the implosion. In this paper, a possible instability in the propagation of the igniting shock wave is analyzed. The idea of combining the fast ignition fusion with an impact shock wave is suggested and analyzed. This is achieved by launching a shock wave by an accelerated foil during the final stage of the implosion in order to ignite the compressed fuel. In this scheme, like other fast ignition schemes, a significant reduction of the driver energy in comparison with standard IFE scenarios is required for the same high gain fusion.

This paper presents an investigation of self-focusing of Gaussian laser beam in collisional plasma and its effect on second harmonic generation. Due to non-uniform heating, collisional non-linearity arises, which leads to redistribution of carriers and hence affects the plasma wave, which in turn affects the second harmonic generation. Effect of the intensity of the laser beam/plasma density on the harmonic yield is studied in detail. We have set up the non-linear differential equations for the beam width parameters of the main beam, plasma wave, second harmonic generation and second harmonic yield by taking full non-linear part of the dielectric constant of collisional plasma with the help of moment theory approach. It is predicted from the analysis that harmonic yield increases/decreases due to increase in the plasma density/intensity of the laser beam respectively.

Inertial confinement fusion fast ignition at very high relativistic electron beam energy is systematically explored through a possible combination of various stopping mechanisms including strong Langmuir turbulence, elastic, and inelastic electron interactions with target particles. A specific attention is given to final state interaction through catalysis by negative pion.

300 keV electron beams with energy peaked in the range 280–390 keV were generated by focusing a high contrast ratio but temporally double pulsed 800 nm ultrafast laser onto a flowing water jet under both helium atmosphere at ambient pressure and water aspirator vacuum conditions, using laser intensities in the range 1015–1018 Wcm−2. Their characteristics have been investigated as functions of inter-pulse delay, incidence geometry and laser pulse chirp. Shot-to-shot variation of the beams' equatorial and azimuthal distributions was also recorded in real time. Measurements of the emitted charge and energy have been performed. Secondary X-ray emission arising from impingement of the electron beams on the target chamber walls and other parts of the apparatus have been identified. Preliminary results after transition to a high repetition rate laser system have shown similar behavior. Approaches for improvements and applications are suggested.

We use a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation to investigate the dynamic polarization and stopping power for an ion beam propagating through a two-component plasma, which is simultaneously irradiated by a strong laser pulse. Compared to the laser-free case, we observe a reduction in the instantaneous stopping power that initially follows the shape of the laser pulse and becomes particularly large as the laser frequency approaches the plasma electron frequency. We attribute this large reduction in the ion stopping power to an increase in plasma temperature due to the energy absorbed in the plasma from the laser pulse through the process of wave heating. In addition, dynamic polarization of the plasma by the ion is found to be strongly modulated by the laser field.

In this paper, we have investigated the propagation characteristics of cosh-Gaussian laser beam in magnetoplasma using relativistic nonlinearity. The field distribution in the medium is expressed in terms of beam width parameter an and decentred parameter b. An appropriate nonlinear Schräodinger equation has been solved analytically using variational approach. The behaviour of beam width parameter with dimensionless distance of propagation ξ for various b values is examined. Self-phase modulation and self-trapping is also studied under variety of parameters. Further, the effect of magnetic field on self-focusing of the beam have been explored.