Magnetized fast isochoric laser heating for efficient creation of ultra-high-energy-density states.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30258053.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-06173-6 and PMC identifier 6158241.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fast isochoric heating of a pre-compressed plasma core with a high-intensity short-pulse laser is an attractive and alternative approach to create ultra-high-energy-density states like those found in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ignition sparks. Laser-produced relativistic electron beam (REB) deposits a part of kinetic energy in the core, and then the heated region becomes the hot spark to trigger the ignition. However, due to the inherent large angular spread of the produced REB, only a small portion of the REB collides with the core. Here, we demonstrate a factor-of-two enhancement of laser-to-core energy coupling with the magnetized fast isochoric heating. The method employs a magnetic field of hundreds of Tesla that is applied to the transport region from the REB generation zone to the core which results in guiding the REB along the magnetic field lines to the core. This scheme may provide more efficient energy coupling compared to the conventional ICF scheme.