Simulating the filamentation of smoothed laser beams with three-dimensional nonlinear dynamics

Babati, L. J.; Farmer, W. A.; Berger, R. L.; Belyaev, M. A.; Chapman, T.; Hinkel, D. E.; Kur, E.; Williams, E. A.

doi:10.1063/5.0090057

Simulating the filamentation of smoothed laser beams with three-dimensional nonlinear dynamics

Journal Article · Mon Sep 12 04:00:00 EDT 2022 · AIP Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0090057· OSTI ID:1891229

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Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

In a plasma, the ponderomotive force of an inhomogeneous electromagnetic field expels plasma from regions of high intensity. When a laser propagates through a plasma, this force creates density wells that subsequently modify the index of refraction. The beam refracts and focuses into these wells and may filament. In extreme cases, the laser beam will spray due to increasing angular divergence of the beam. The threshold for ponderomotive self-focusing is well established for isolated laser hotspots or speckles. Here, we define a practical threshold for characterizing the filamentation of thousands of speckles that are found in the focal plane of high-power laser beams spatially smoothed with random phase plates as used at high energy and power laser facilities studying inertial confinement fusion. This threshold is tested against three-dimensional simulations of speckled laser light propagating through plasma. Four metrics are applied to assess filamentation: the fraction of power above five times the average intensity, an effective f-number, the mean-squared perpendicular wavenumber, and the fraction of rarefied density with deviation from the initial density exceeding | δn/ n| = 0.1. The speckled beams studied are generated by random phase plates, both with and without additional polarization smoothing, in a parameter regime of relevance to indirect drive experiments. While filamentation has been discussed extensively in the literature, we believe this to be the first published simulation study with three-dimensional nonlinear hydrodynamics that addresses the onset threshold of ponderomotive filamentation and establishes the lengths and time scales necessary to reach a statistical steady state.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

OSTI ID:: 1891229

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1886709

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-831224; 1047854

Journal Information:: AIP Advances, Journal Name: AIP Advances Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 12; ISSN 2158-3226

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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