The application of parallel kinetic simulations to laser and electron transport through plasmas (Final technical report)

Technical Report · Mon Aug 07 04:00:00 EDT 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1993495· OSTI ID:1993495

Mori, Warren B. ^[1]; Tsung, Frank S. ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); UCLA
2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

This is a final report for the grant entitled, “The application of parallel kinetic simulations to laser and electron transport through plasmas”. The objectives of this grant were to significantly advance the fundamental understanding of the nonlinear optics of plasmas and electron transport in high-energy-density laboratory plasmas (HEDLP), including conditions of relevance to Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE). The ultimate goal was to use the understanding to determine how to fully control laser plasma interactions. The primary research tools were our own kinetic particle-in-cell software, OSIRIS, that includes kinetic physics and can run effectively on leadership class computing facilities. Therefore, one objective was to ensure that OSIRIS in continually improved so that it was more accurate and could effectively utilize state-of-the-art computing facilities. Another objective was to attract and train young researchers into the field of high energy density plasma physics. To meet the research objectives, the funds from this proposal were used to conduct research on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and enhance our PIC software OSIRIS. It was found that small normalized magnetic fields can in some cases mitigate SRS and that speckles can mutually interact through SRS. It was also found that it is possible for instabilities drive near quarter critical (e.g., the high frequency hybrid instability-HFHI) can generate light waves that propagate back down a density gradient where they can rescatter into the HFHI at 1/16 of the original quarter critical density.

• Research Organization: Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0019010
• OSTI ID: 1993495
• Report Number(s): Final-report-DOE-UCLA--SC0019010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY