We investigate a new laser-driven spherically convergent plasma fusion scheme (SCPF) that can produce thermonuclear neutrons stably and efficiently. In the SCPF scheme, laser beams of nanosecond pulse duration and 10^{14}-10^{15}  W/cm^{2} intensity uniformly irradiate the fuel layer lined inside a spherical hohlraum. The fuel layer is ablated and heated to expand inwards. Eventually, the hot fuel plasmas converge, collide, merge, and stagnate at the central region, converting most of their kinetic energy to internal energy, forming a thermonuclear fusion fireball. With the assumptions of steady ablation and adiabatic expansion, we theoretically predict the neutron yield Y_{n} to be related to the laser energy E_{L}, the hohlraum radius R_{h}, and the pulse duration τ through a scaling law of Y_{n}∝(E_{L}/R_{h}^{1.2}τ^{0.2})^{2.5}. We have done experiments at the ShengGuangIII-prototype facility to demonstrate the principle of the SCPF scheme. Some important implications are discussed.

A method is proposed to control the stimulated Raman scattering in the inertial confinement fusion by using auxiliary 2ω light to suppress the stimulated Raman scattering of the 3ω light. In this scheme, inverse bremsstrahlung absorption and parametric instabilities in the 2ω light increase the electron temperature and the plasma-density fluctuation, thus preventing the development of Raman scattering of the 3ω light. This scheme is successfully demonstrated by both one-dimensional kinetic simulations and two-dimensional radiative hydrodynamic simulations. The one-dimensional Vlasov results show that the time-averaged transmissivity of the 3ω light increases from 0.75 to 0.95 under certain conditions. Results obtained using the particle-in-cell method with Monte Carlo collisions show that the electron temperature is greatly increased with the increasing intensity of the 2ω light. The two-dimensional radiative hydrodynamic simulation results show that the electron temperature increases from 3.2 keV to 3.5 keV, and the time-averaged backscattering level decreases from 0.28 to 0.1 in the presence of the auxiliary 2ω light.

The physics of laser-plasma interaction is studied on the Shenguang III prototype laser facility under conditions relevant to inertial confinement fusion designs. A sub-millimeter-size underdense hot plasma is created by ionization of a low-density plastic foam by four high-energy (3.2 kJ) laser beams. An interaction beam is fired with a delay permitting evaluation of the excitation of parametric instabilities at different stages of plasma evolution. Multiple diagnostics are used for plasma characterization, scattered radiation, and accelerated electrons. The experimental results are analyzed with radiation hydrodynamic simulations that take account of foam ionization and homogenization. The measured level of stimulated Raman scattering is almost one order of magnitude larger than that measured in experiments with gasbags and hohlraums on the same installation, possibly because of a greater plasma density. Notable amplification is achieved in high-intensity speckles, indicating the importance of implementing laser temporal smoothing techniques with a large bandwidth for controlling laser propagation and absorption.