No abstract

Scattering of laser light by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a concern for indirect drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The hohlraum designs for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) raise particular concerns due to the large scale and homogeneity of the plasmas within them. Experiments at Nova have studied laser–plasma interactions within large scale length plasmas that mimic many of the characteristics of the NIF hohlraum plasmas. Filamentation and scattering of laser light by SBS and SRS have been investigated as a function of beam smoothing and plasma conditions. Narrowly collimated SRS backscatter has been observed from low density, low-Z, plasmas, which are representative of the plasma filling most of the NIF hohlraum. SBS backscatter is found to occur in the high-Z plasma of gold ablated from the wall. Both SBS and SRS are observed to be at acceptable levels in experiments using smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD).

The experimental images of the sidescattered light from a plasma, created by the multiterawatt laser pulse propagating in a hydrogen gas jet, exhibit clear dependence on both gas jet pressure and laser power. Two-and three-dimensional simulations of wave propagation, in presence of the relativistic electron mass increase and the ponderomotive expel of electrons, have been performed to reproduce the Thomson radiation from the plasma electrons. They show electron cavitation induced by the beam focusing, self-focusing, self-guiding, smoothing of the beam nonuniformities and, at larger power, beam filamentation. A bremsstrahlung model with account of the ionization, heating, expansion, and recombination dynamics of the gas, provides the plasma emission background. Both Thomson emission and bremsstrahlung are required to recover the experimental emission patterns. Among the interpretations, a scenario of laser self-guiding over five Rayleigh lengths can be found for 10 TW laser power and 5ϫ10 18 cm Ϫ3 electron density, which surprisingly disappears at larger powers and densities.

Calibrated thermoluminescence dosimeters have been used to measure the angular and spectral dependence of hard x-ray emission produced from intense subpicosecond laser irradiation of solid targets. A dosimeter detector set with nine filter channels (13.5–400 keV) has been tested successfully. Total bremsstrahlung conversion up to 0.23% and conversion of 8×10−5 from laser energy to Ta Kα line emission (photon energy ≊57 keV) was determined. The scaling of the hard x-ray yield with laser intensities ranging from 3×1016 to 3×1018 W/cm2 was investigated.

Diagnostics have been developed and fielded at the Nova laser facility that, for the first time, image nearly all the light scattered within 20° of the laser axis, including the light collected by the laser focusing lens as well as that just outside the lens. Absolute calibration of optical components exposed to the target debris have been achieved by a combination of routine in situ calibration and maintenance. Measurements from plasmas relevant to ignition experiments indicate that scattering is peaked in the direction of backscatter with significant energy scattered both into the lens and just outside the lens. The scattering outside the lens is found to be dominant when the f number is large (f/8).