Plasma block acceleration by ps-TW laser irradiation

George H. Miley; Frederick Osman; Heinrich Hora; Jan Badziak; Karel Rohlena; Karel Jungwirth; Jerzy Wolowski; Y. Cang; X. He; Jie Zhang; Peter X. Hammerling

doi:10.1117/12.546798

20 September 2004 Plasma block acceleration by ps-TW laser irradiation

George H. Miley, Frederick Osman, Heinrich Hora, Jan Badziak, Karel Rohlena, Karel Jungwirth, Jerzy Wolowski, Y. Cang, X. He, Jie Zhang, Peter X. Hammerling

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5448, High-Power Laser Ablation V; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.546798
Event: High-Power Laser Ablation, 2004, Taos, New Mexico, United States

Abstract

Plasma emission or ablation from laser-irradiated targets shows very complicated properties. One novelty was observed at irradiation of neodymium glass laser pulses of ps duration and TW power if there was a very strong suppression of prepulses by a contrast ratio of about 10⁸ until 100 ps before the main pulse arrived. The emitted ion maximum energy was more than 50 times below the values observed in all the comparable numerous experiments. The other anomaly is that the number of the fast ions did not change when the laser intensity varied by a factor 30. This permitted a separation of the usual effects of self-focusing and permitted an analysis fully based on simplified plane geometry as a skin layer interaction mechanism. The consequence is that plasma blocks are accelerated by the nonlinear (ponderomotive) force with ion current densities above 10¹⁰ A/cm². This provides basically new aspects for laser fusion using uncompressed solid DT fuel and a new kind of x-ray laser process may be possible.

Citation Download Citation

George H. Miley, Frederick Osman, Heinrich Hora, Jan Badziak, Karel Rohlena, Karel Jungwirth, Jerzy Wolowski, Y. Cang, X. He, Jie Zhang, and Peter X. Hammerling "Plasma block acceleration by ps-TW laser irradiation", Proc. SPIE 5448, High-Power Laser Ablation V, (20 September 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.546798

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available