The ULIA-1 Conference, a scientific initiative of Antonio Giulietti, was the first of the ULIA Euroconferences Series, from the Istituto di Fisica Atomicae Molecolare (IFAM), Pisa, Italy. It was held in Elounda, Crete, Greece, May 7-11, 1999, one of the most attractive Mediterranean spots, characterized by beautiful surroundings rich with suggestions of the ancient Minoan civilization.

Thanks to the amiable assistance of Professor Miley, the publication of selected papers presented at the Conference “Zababakhin Scientific Talks” in the Laser and Particle Beams journal is becoming a good tradition. Zababakhin Scientific Talks is an International Scientific Conference regularly held at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center–VNIITF in Snezhinsk, Russia.

The hydrodynamic response of metal targets to volume heating by energy deposition of intense heavy-ion beams was investigated experimentally. Recent improvements in beam parameters led to a marked increase in specific deposition power: 2·101040Ar18+ ions of 300 MeV/u focused to a spot size of 300 μm (σ) × 540 μm (σ) yield a specific deposition energy in solid lead of approximately 1 kJ/g in the Bragg peak, delivered within 250 ns [full width at half maximum (FWHM)]. This value allowed us for the first time to observe heavy-ion-beam-induced hydrodynamic expansion of metal volume targets. Measurements comprise expansion velocities of free surfaces of up to 290 ± 20 m/s, surface temperatures of ejected target matter of 1600–1750 K, and pressure waves in solid metal bulk targets of 0.16 GPa maximum absolute value and 0.8 μs FWHM. The experimental results agree well with the results of a 2D hydrodynamic code. Inside the interaction zone, which can only be accessed by simulation, maximum temperatures are 2800 K and maximum pressures are 3.8 GPa.

This paper is devoted to the investigation of powerful laser pulse interaction with regularly and statistically volume-structured media with near critical average density and properties of laser-produced plasma of such a media. The results of the latest experiments on laser pulse interaction with plane foam targets performed on Nd-laser facilities “ABC” in the ENEA-EURATOM Association (Frascati, Italy) and “MISHEN” in the Troitsk Institute of Innovation Thermonuclear Investigations (TRINITI, Troitsk Russia), and J-laser “ISKRA-4” in the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF, Sarov, Russia) are presented and analyzed. High efficiency of the internal volume absorption of laser radiation in the foams of supercritical density was observed, and the dynamics of absorbing region formation and velocity of energy transfer process versus the parameters of porous matter are found. Some inertial confinement fusion (ICF) applications based on nonequilibrium properties of laser-produced plasma of a foam and regularly structured media such as the powerful neutron source with yield of 109–1011 DT-neutrons per 1 J of laser energy, laser-produced X-ray generation in high temperature supercritical plasma, and the compact ICF target absorbers providing effective smoothing and ablation are proposed.

Simulations of the interaction of very intense short pulse lasers with solid density plasmas have indicated that there may be very high magnetic fields and electron temperatures in the vicinity of the focal spot. We investigate the propagation of an incident electromagnetic wave under these conditions, both analytically and by means of a particle code, and show that the evanescence length of the wave field in a highly overdense plasma may be much greater than is usually supposed. This effect could be important in understanding the penetration of energy into the overdense region and the particle heating and acceleration which takes place there.

Modeling plus simulations using the one-dimensional Lagrangian radiation-hydrodynamics code HYADES are compared with data from classical and ablative Rayleigh–Taylor experiments conducted on the Nova laser. Comparisons between the experiments and modeling for both the gross hydrodynamic motion and the perturbation evolution are made and show good agreement. A third order perturbation analysis is applied to demonstrate the onset of nonlinearity. A simple, physically intuitive saturation model is used to describe the growth further into the nonlinear regime. Finally, we present the first comparison of the Betti ablation front theory with indirect-drive RT data and obtain good agreement.

Experiments to demonstrate the effects of various beam-smoothing techniques have been performed on the 60-beam, 30-kJ UV OMEGA laser system. These include direct measurements of the effect beam-smoothing techniques have on laser beam nonuniformity and on both planar and spherical targets. Demonstrated techniques include polarization smoothing and “dual-tripler” third-harmonic generation required for future broad bandwidth (∼1 THz) smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD). The effects of improvements in single-beam uniformity are clearly seen in the target-physics experiments, which also show the effect of the laser pulse shape on the efficacy of SSD smoothing. Saturation of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) growth of the broad-bandwidth features, in agreement with the Haan model (Haan, 1989), produced by laser imprinting has also been observed.

At the installation SOM, the experimental study of the impulse acceleration influence on the behavior of the turbulized layer obtained as a result of Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) action on the system of two different density liquids with the density ratio n = 3, has been performed. After application of impulse acceleration the systems were moving according to inertia, and by using the light method the coordinates of penetration of the heavier liquid into the lighter one and vice versa were determined. The liquids studied were placed inside the ampoule that had internal working sizes (54 × 64 × 120) mm3. There were initial accidental perturbations like a rough solid surface at the interface and the width of the initial perturbation zone was L0 = 2.3 mm. The moving ampoule blow against metal plates created the impulse acceleration. The relative impulse acceleration was δg/g11 = 22.2–66.6 where g11 is the ampoule acceleration before the impact, the impulse duration was varied from 0.27 ms to 0.096 ms. The results concerned with the turbulized layer extension after the impulse acceleration action were obtained.

We study fully relativistic nonlinear 1D fluid equations describing steady-state solutions for an electromagnetic wave interacting with plasma in the self-induced transparency regime. In addition to the well-known solution that corresponds to the transmission of the electromagnetic wave into plasma, another steady-state solution is shown to exist in a certain range of the amplitude of the wave. The latter one satisfies the same boundary conditions but corresponds to the full reflection of the incident wave. The co-existence of the two solutions indicates a rich structure of the interface between the opaque and transparent phases in ultraintense laser interactions with near-critical and overdense plasmas—in particular, one may expect hysteresis-like behavior when a current state of the system depends on its history.

Behavior of the turbulized mixtures at the stage of their inertial motion (with removed acceleration) has been studied. Turbulized mixtures were obtained at the contact boundary of two different density fluids as a result of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) development. At some instant of time t*, the acceleration sign was changed and conditions for the mixture separation were created. Then at the instant of time t**, the acceleration was removed and the turbulized mixture continued to move under force of inertia. Experiments have been performed at the installations EKAP and SOM. At the stage of inertial motion, the average density distribution of substance in the mixture region and the width of the turbulized mixture region have been obtained. The data on the mixture region expansion at the stage of inertial motion have been obtained as well.

The hydrodynamics of plasma ablation and the thermalization process of the target interior core with the surrounding corona, formed by the uniform irradiation of intense ion beams over the spherical target are investigated in detail. Starting from the basic equations for the ion beam, the ion beam penetration depth is calculated and the self-regulation condition for the hot corona is applied to describe the process of core-corona coupling. The effects of ion beam energy, ion beam mass, and the target electron density on the ion beam penetration depth are studied. As the relevant calculations reveal, it is interesting to note the existence of an optimum value of ion beam energy for which the core-corona coupling attains maximum value, beyond which further increase of the ion beam energy leads to the formation of more tenuous corona only and the target interior core begins to decouple from the surrounding corona.

Experiments were performed using high-power laser pulses (greater than 50 TW) focused into underdense helium, neon, or deuterium plasmas (ne ≤ 5 × 1019 cm−3). Ions having energies greater than 300 keV were measured to be produced primarily at 90° to the axis of laser propagation. Ion energies greater than 6 MeV were recorded from interactions with neon. Spatially resolved pinhole images of the ion emission were also obtained and were used to estimate the intensity of the focused radiation in the interaction region.

Beam-generated magnetic fields strongly influence the behavior of relativistic electron guns. Existing methods used in ray-tracing codes have limited accuracy and may not correctly represent nonlaminar beams. We describe a technique for the magnetic field calculation in a two-dimensional code based on the assignment of particle currents to the faces of elements in the mesh used for the electrostatic calculation. The balanced calculation of electric and magnetic forces in the same iteration cycle reduces the possibility of numerical filamentation instabilities. With simple rules of assignment on boundary faces, the method also handles field contributions of electrode currents. Several benchmark calculations performed on conformal meshes illustrate the versatility of the technique.

The method for providing the contact surface of gases to study the Richtmyer–Meshkov and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities development with the P-membrane being destroyed forcedly is proposed. At the membrane destruction, the plane turbulent layer determining the initial and boundary conditions for the gravitational instabilities development is formed. For the shock tube OSA, the initial stage of the development of the turbulent layer from the P-membrane, after the interaction with a stationary shock wave (Ms = 1.81) has been investigated.

The interaction of an intense laser field with a thin foil is studied within the framework of a 1D capacitor model with mobile negative point-charges. The model describes the excitation of plane electrostatic oscillations, taking into account the effects of particle–particle crossings and the presence of vacuum boundaries. It is demonstrated how vacuum excursions of particles cause wavebreaking within the foil. From wavebreaking points, charge density discontinuities are shown to propagate further along particle caustics. Absorption is calculated as a function of laser intensity and frequency. It is found that a thin overdense foil can absorb about 5 times more energy than a corresponding surface of an extended solid. This is explained by the doubling of surface charges and by electron heating in the potential well of the foil. A further absorption maximum is obtained below the plasma frequency due to resonance absorption.

Experiments have been performed on the interaction physics of laser light with polystyrene and agar–agar foams having average densities higher than critical. The experiments have been performed at the ABC facility of the Associazione EURATOM-ENEA sulla Fusione, in Frascati. The main addressed topics have been energy coupling (balance), diffusion of energy into the target, plasma and dense phase dynamics, and harmonics generation. The laser light (λ = 1.054 μm) was focused by a F/1 lens to produce on the target surface about 1.6 × 1014 W/cm2 (≈1015 W/cm2 in the waist, set about 100 μm inside the target). Experiments have shown efficient energy coupling (>80%) to be attributed to cavity formation in the low density foam (efficient light absorption) and good mechanical coupling of the plasma trapped in the cavity to the dense phase (ablation pressure work). Heat diffusion possibly plays a transitory role in the initial stages of the interaction (300–500 ps). Time integrated harmonics measurements revealed a blue-shifted 2ω and a red-shifted 5/2ω.

A 3D numerical study of the turbulent phase of the evolution of Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) was undertaken using the MAH-3 code. A criterion and a technique have been developed that can be used for diagnostics in computational experiments studying flow transition to self-similar turbulence. It has been found that a criterion of the flow transition to the self-similar turbulence is Kolmogorov's self-similar distribution of the turbulent kinetic energy together with the square law of mixing zone extension. The technique is based on the analysis of the evolution of the dimensionless power spectrum of specific kinetic energy. Three phases of nonlinear mixing are found: “relict chaos”, “formation of classical energy spectrum” and “spectrum degradation.” Determination of a proportionality factor for a square law within the time range incorporating inertial interval gives the value of α ≈ 0.07.

Significant interest has recently focused on the use of liquid-metal targets flowing with high velocities for various high-power nuclear and high-energy physics applications such as fusion reactor first-walls, the Spallation Neutron Source, Isotope Separation On Line, and Muon Collider projects. This is because the heat generated in solid targets due to beam or plasma bombardment cannot be removed easily and the resulting thermal shock damage could be a serious lifetime problem for long-term operation. More recently, the use of free or open flying-liquid jets has been proposed for higher-power-density applications. The behavior of a free-moving liquid mercury or gallium jet subjected to proton beam deposition in a strong magnetic field has been modeled and analyzed for the Muon Collider project. Free-liquid-metal jets can offer significant advantages over conventional solid targets, particularly for the more demanding and challenging high-power applications. However, the use of free-moving liquid-metal targets raises a number of new and challenging problems such as instabilities of the jet in a strong magnetic field, induced eddy-current effects on jet shape, thermal-shock formation, and possible jet fragmentation. Problems associated with shock heating of liquid jets in a strong magnetic field are analyzed in this study.

We considered an ignition strategy based on energy injection in the final stages of the target implosion, but well before stagnation. The injected energy is used to set on a high adiabat the small portion of the fuel destined to become the ignition spark. Most of the energy needed to form the spark is provided by the work of the imploding target on the spark fuel. This approach is first introduced by a simple analytical model and then illustrated by 2D numerical calculations, in which the ignition of imploding cylinders by heavy ions is simulated. Different implosion designs and burn modes are presented and discussed. When compared with the standard central self-generated spark, or the fast ignition approaches, the ignition by entropy injection is potentially promising of some distinct advantages.

The effect of surface deformations on laser absorption and transport in overdense plasma targets is investigated with 2D Vlasov simulations. Fractional absorption increases strongly with the deformation depth and scales weakly with density or intensity. Fast electrons generated in the skin layer have high tangential velocity directed toward the deformation center. In the case of a single, smooth deformation, they may be collimated by magnetic fields into a single jet which penetrates deeply into the plasma. Small-scale surface corrugations are able to destroy the collimation of a single jet leading to multiple jets or diffuse electron sprays.