Creating plasma from foam using high-energy lasers
DOI: 10.1063/10.0003735
Creating plasma from foam using high-energy lasers lead image
Foams are a promising material for high energy density physics since they are solid and very light but can be easily transformed into a plasma of desired density with laser or X-ray radiation. The creation of plasma from a foam, however, requires a lot of laser energy and it is not well understood.
Tikhonchuk et al. explored the transition of foam into the plasma state and laser-plasma interaction using a high energy laser facility in China in a collaboration between the ELI Beamlines Center in Prague and the Laser Fusion Research Center in Mianyang.
The researchers found that the time of plasma formation from a foam was longer than expected and the amount of laser radiation reflected from the plasma was several times more than expected.
“In particular, we measured a very strong scattering of interaction laser pulses from electronic plasma waves, which is important for many applications,’ said author Vladimir Tikhonchuk.
The experiment consisted of two steps. First, the researchers created a hot plasma with high energy laser pulses and second, they investigated the properties of this plasma with an additional high intensity laser beam.
To obtain information about the plasma, which lives for just a few nanoseconds, the team used several diagnostics that measured optical and X-ray emission from the plasma and energetic electrons ejected from it.
Foam plasmas are a promising source of bright X-ray emissions, and foams are also used for layering targets in inertial confinement fusion, for creating strong shock waves with radiation-controlled energy transparent, for studies of nonlinear wave interactions in astrophysical conditions and charged particle acceleration with lasers.
Source: “Studies of laser-plasma interaction physics with low-density targets for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion on the Shenguang III prototype,” by V. T. Tikhonchuk, T. Gong, N. Jourdain, O. Renner, F. P. Condamine, K. Q. Pan, W. Nazarov, L. Hudec, J. Limpouch, R. Liska, M. Krůs, F. Wang, D. Yang, S. W. Li, Z. C. Li, Z. Y. Guan, Y. G. Liu, T. Xu, X. S. Peng, X. M. Liu, Y. L. Li, J. Li, T. M. Song, J. M. Yang, S. E. Jiang, B. H. Zhang, W. Y. Huo, G. Ren, Y. H. Chen, W. Zheng, Y. K. Ding, K. Lan, and S. Weber, Matter and Radiation at Extremes (2021). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0023006 .
This paper is part of the Progress in Matter and Radiation at Extremes in China Collection, learn more here .
