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Title: Mitigation of hot electrons from laser-plasma instabilities in high-Z, highly ionized plasmas

Abstract

Intense lasers interacting with under-dense plasma can drive laser-plasma instabilities (LPIs) that generate largeamplitude electron plasma waves (EPWs). Suprathermal or “hot” electrons produced in the EPWs are detrimental to inertial confinement fusion (ICF), by reducing capsule implosion efficiency through preheat, and also present an unwanted source of background on x-ray diagnostics. Mitigation of hot electrons was demonstrated in the past by altering plasma conditions near the quarter-critical density, nc/4, with the interpretation of reduced growth of the twoplasmon decay (TPD) instability. Here, we present measurements of hot electrons generated in laser-irradiated planar foils of material ranging from low- to high-Z, where the fraction of laser energy converted to hot electrons, fhot was reduced by a factor of 103 going from CH to Au. This correlates with steepening density gradient length-scales that were also measured. Radiation hydrodynamic simulations produced electron density profiles in reasonable agreement with our measurements. According to the simulations, both multi-beam TPD and stimulated Raman scattering were predicted to be above threshold with linear threshold parameters that decreased with increasing Z due to steepening length-scales, as well as enhanced laser absorption and increased EPW collisional and Landau damping.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  2. Lab. for Laser Energetics, Rochester, NY (United States)
  3. Soreq Research Center, Yavne (Israel)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP)
OSTI Identifier:
1444114
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1348953
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0002956; NA0000850; NA0001840; FC52-08NA28616
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 24; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Fein, J. R., Holloway, J. P., Trantham, M. R., Keiter, P. A., Edgell, D. H., Froula, D. H., Haberberger, D., Frank, Y., Fraenkel, M., Raicher, E., Shvarts, D., and Drake, R. P. Mitigation of hot electrons from laser-plasma instabilities in high-Z, highly ionized plasmas. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4978625.
Fein, J. R., Holloway, J. P., Trantham, M. R., Keiter, P. A., Edgell, D. H., Froula, D. H., Haberberger, D., Frank, Y., Fraenkel, M., Raicher, E., Shvarts, D., & Drake, R. P. Mitigation of hot electrons from laser-plasma instabilities in high-Z, highly ionized plasmas. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4978625
Fein, J. R., Holloway, J. P., Trantham, M. R., Keiter, P. A., Edgell, D. H., Froula, D. H., Haberberger, D., Frank, Y., Fraenkel, M., Raicher, E., Shvarts, D., and Drake, R. P. 2017. "Mitigation of hot electrons from laser-plasma instabilities in high-Z, highly ionized plasmas". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4978625. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1444114.
@article{osti_1444114,
title = {Mitigation of hot electrons from laser-plasma instabilities in high-Z, highly ionized plasmas},
author = {Fein, J. R. and Holloway, J. P. and Trantham, M. R. and Keiter, P. A. and Edgell, D. H. and Froula, D. H. and Haberberger, D. and Frank, Y. and Fraenkel, M. and Raicher, E. and Shvarts, D. and Drake, R. P.},
abstractNote = {Intense lasers interacting with under-dense plasma can drive laser-plasma instabilities (LPIs) that generate largeamplitude electron plasma waves (EPWs). Suprathermal or “hot” electrons produced in the EPWs are detrimental to inertial confinement fusion (ICF), by reducing capsule implosion efficiency through preheat, and also present an unwanted source of background on x-ray diagnostics. Mitigation of hot electrons was demonstrated in the past by altering plasma conditions near the quarter-critical density, nc/4, with the interpretation of reduced growth of the twoplasmon decay (TPD) instability. Here, we present measurements of hot electrons generated in laser-irradiated planar foils of material ranging from low- to high-Z, where the fraction of laser energy converted to hot electrons, fhot was reduced by a factor of 103 going from CH to Au. This correlates with steepening density gradient length-scales that were also measured. Radiation hydrodynamic simulations produced electron density profiles in reasonable agreement with our measurements. According to the simulations, both multi-beam TPD and stimulated Raman scattering were predicted to be above threshold with linear threshold parameters that decreased with increasing Z due to steepening length-scales, as well as enhanced laser absorption and increased EPW collisional and Landau damping.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4978625},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1444114}, journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
issn = {1070-664X},
number = 3,
volume = 24,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Cited by: 10 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Estimates of a) hot-electron fraction and b) temperature vs. target material atomic number.

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Works referenced in this record:

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Development of a backlit-multi-pinhole radiography source
journal, October 2018


Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.