Laser-plasma interactions for fast ignition

Abstract

In the electron-driven fast-ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion, petawatt laser pulses are required to generate MeV electrons that deposit several tens of kilojoules in the compressed core of an imploded DT shell. We review recent progress in the understanding of intense laser plasma interactions (LPI) relevant to fast ignition. Increases in computational and modeling capabilities, as well as algorithmic developments have led to enhancement in our ability to perform multi-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of LPI at relevant scales. We discuss the physics of the interaction in terms of laser absorption fraction, the laser-generated electron spectra, divergence, and their temporal evolution. Scaling with irradiation conditions such as laser intensity are considered, as well as the dependence on plasma parameters. Different numerical modeling approaches and configurations are addressed, providing an overview of the modeling capabilities and limitations. In addition, we discuss the comparison of simulation results with experimental observables. In particular, we address the question of surrogacy of today's experiments for the full-scale fast ignition problem.

48 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Nuclear Fusion

References in corpus (8)

• One-to-one direct modeling of experiments and astrophysical scenarios: pushing the envelope on kinetic plasma simulations
• Fast ignition of fusion targets by laser-driven electrons
• Three-dimensional fast electron transport for ignition-scale inertial fusion capsules
• Laser-plasma interactions for fast ignition
• Statistical kinetic treatment of relativistic binary collisions
• Efficient modeling of laser plasma interactions in high energy density scenarios
• Three-dimensional simulations of laser-plasma interactions at ultrahigh intensities
• Influence of Surface Waves on Plasma High Harmonic Generation

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Scaling the Yield of Laser-Driven Electron-Positron Jets to Laboratory Astrophysical Applications
• Laser-plasma interactions for fast ignition
• Petawatt laser absorption bounded
• Ion beam requirements for fast ignition of inertial fusion targets
• Generation of keV hot near-solid density plasma states at high contrast laser-matter interaction
• Synchrotron radiation from ultrahigh-intensity laser-plasma interactions and competition with Bremsstrahlung in thin foil targets
• Enhanced Stopping of Macro-Particles in Particle-in-Cell Simulations
• Confinement of relativistic electrons in a magnetic mirror en route to a magnetized relativistic pair plasma
• Direct laser acceleration in varying plasma density profiles
• Dispersion Calibration for the National Ignition Facility Electron Positron Proton Spectrometers for Intense Laser Matter Interactions
• Extended particle absorber for efficient modeling of intense laser-solid interactions
• Observation of 1-D time dependent non-propagating laser plasma structures using Fluid and PIC codes
• A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm
• Energy coupling in intense laser solid interactions: material properties of gold
• Fusion ignition via a magnetically-assisted fast ignition approach