Studies on laser–plasma interaction physics for shock ignition

Abstract

We realized a series of experiments to study the physics of laser-plasma interaction in an intensity regime of interest for the novel "Shock Ignition" approach to Inertial Fusion. Experiments were performed at the Prague Asterix Laser System laser in Prague using two laser beams: an "auxiliary" beam, for pre-plasma creation, with intensity around 7 × 10 13 W/cm 2 (250 ps, 1ω, λ = 1315 nm) and the "main" beam, up to 10 16 W/cm (250 ps, 3ω, λ = 438 nm), to launch a shock. The main goal of these experiments is to study the process of the formation of a very strong shock and the influence of hot electrons in the generation of very high pressures. The shock produced by the ablation of the plastic layer is studied by shock breakout chronometry. The generation of hot electrons is analyzed by imaging Kα emission.