Mitigation of cross-beam energy transfer in inertial-confinement-fusion plasmas with enhanced laser bandwidth.

Bates, J W; Myatt, J F; Shaw, J G; Follett, R K; Weaver, J L; Lehmberg, R H; Obenschain, S P · Phys Rev E · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) is a significant energy-loss mechanism in directly driven inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) targets. One strategy for mitigating CBET is to increase the bandwidth of the laser light, thereby disrupting the resonant three-wave interactions that underlie this nonlinear scattering process. Here, we report on numerical simulations performed with the wave-based code lpse that show a significant reduction in CBET for bandwidths of 2-5 THz (corresponding to a normalized bandwidth of 0.2%-0.6% at a laser wavelength of 351nm) under realistic plasma conditions. Such bandwidths are beyond those available with current high-energy lasers used for ICF, but could be achieved using stimulated rotation Raman scattering in diatomic gases like nitrogen.