0.351 micron Laser Beam propagation in High-temperature Plasmas, 2007, December 21

A study of the laser-plasma interaction processes have been performed in plasmas that are created to emulate the plasma conditions in indirect drive inertial confinement fusion targets. The plasma emulator is produced in a gas-filled hohlraum; a blue 351-nm laser beam propagates along the axis of the hohlraum interacting with a high-temperature (T{sub e} = 3.5 keV), dense (n{sub e} = 5 x 10{sup 20}cm{sup -3}), long-scale length (L {approx} 2 mm) plasma. Experiments at these conditions have demonstrated that the interaction beam produces less than 1% total backscatter resulting in transmission greater than 90% for laser intensities less than I < 2 x 10{sup 15} W-cm{sup -2}. The bulk plasma conditions have been independently characterized using Thomson scattering where the peak electron temperatures are shown to scale with the hohlraum heater beam energy in the range from 2 keV to 3.5 keV. This feature has allowed us to determine the thresholds for both backscattering and filamentation instabilities; the former measured with absolutely calibrated full aperture backscatter and near backscatter diagnostics and the latter with a transmitted beam diagnostics. A plasma length scaling is also investigated extending our measurements to 4-mm long high-temperature plasmas. At intensities I < 5 x 10{sup 14} W-cm{sup -2}, greater than 80% of the energy in the laser is transmitted through a 5-mm long, high-temperature (T{sub e} > 2.5 keV) high-density (n{sub e} = 5 x 10{sup 20} w-cm{sup -3}) plasma. Comparing the experimental results with detailed gain calculations for the onset of significant laser scattering processes shows a stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold (R=10%) for a linear gain of 15; these high temperature, low density experiments produce plasma conditions comparable to those along the outer beams in ignition hohlraum designs. By increasing the gas fill density (n{sub e} = 10{sup 21} cm{sup -3}) in these targets, the inner beam ignition hohlraum conditions are accessed. In this case, stimulated Raman scattering dominates the backscattering processes and we show that scattering is small for gains less than 20 which can be achieved through proper choice of the laser beam intensity. The first three-dimensional (3D) simulations of a high power 0.351 {micro}m laser beam propagating through a high-temperature hohlraum plasma are also reported. We show that 3D linear kinetic modeling of Stimulated Brillouin scattering reproduces quantitatively the experimental measurements, provided it is coupled to detailed hydrodynamics simulation and a realistic description of the laser beam from its millimeter-size envelop down to the micron scale speckles. These simulations accurately predict the strong reduction of SBS measured when polarization smoothing is used

3w Transmitted Beam Diagnostic at the Omega Laser Facility

A 3{omega} transmitted beam diagnostic has been commissioned on the Omega Laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester [Soures et.al., Laser Part. Beams 11 (1993)]. Transmitted light from one beam is collected by a large focusing mirror and directed onto a diagnostic platform. The near field of the transmitted light is imaged; the system collects information from twice the original f-cone of the beam. Two gated optical cameras capture the near field image of the transmitted light. Thirteen spatial positions around the measurement region are temporally resolved using fast photodiodes to allow a measure of the beam spray evolution. The Forward stimulated Raman scattering and forward simulated Brillion scattering are spectrally and temporally resolved at 5 independent locations within twice the original f-cone. The total transmitted energy is measured in two spectral bands ({delta}{lambda} < 400 nm and {delta}{lambda} > 400 nm)

Developing the child oral health impact profile: an international study

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Time-resolved Soft X-Ray Imaging (SXRI) diagnostic for use at the NIF and OMEGA lasers

The soft x-ray imager (SXRI) built for the first experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has four soft x-ray channels and one hard x-ray channel. The SXRI is a snout that mounts to a four strip gated imager. This produces four soft x-ray images per strip, which can be separated in time by {approx}60psec. Each soft x-ray channel consists of a mirror plus a filter. The diagnostic was used to study x-ray burnthrough of hot hohlraum targets at the NIF and OMEGA lasers. The SXRI snout design and issues involved in selecting the desired soft x-ray channels are discussed

Time-resolved Soft X-Ray Imaging (SXRI) diagnostic for use at the NIF and OMEGA lasers (version 2)

The soft x-ray imager (SXRI) built for the first experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has four soft x-ray channels and one hard x-ray channel. The SXRI is a snout that mounts to a four strip gated imager. This produces four soft x-ray images per strip, which can be separated in time by {approx}60psec. Each soft x-ray channel consists of a mirror plus a filter. The diagnostic was used to study x-ray burnthrough of hot hohlraum targets at the NIF and OMEGA lasers. The SXRI snout design and issues involved in selecting the desired soft x-ray channels are discussed

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion