Characterization of hot electrons generated by laser-plasma interaction at shock ignition intensities

E. D. Filippov*, M. Khan, A. Tentori, P. Gajdos, A. S. Martynenko, R. Dudzak, P. Koester, G. Zeraouli, D. Mancelli, F. Baffigi, L. A. Gizzi, S. A. Pikuz, Ph D. Nicolaï, N. C. Woolsey, R. Fedosejevs, M. Krus, L. Juha, D. Batani, O. Renner, G. Cristoforetti

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In an experiment carried out at the Prague Asterix Laser System at laser intensities relevant to shock ignition conditions (I > 1016 W/cm2), the heating and transport of hot electrons were studied by using several complementary diagnostics, i.e., Kα time-resolved imaging, hard x-ray filtering (a bremsstrahlung cannon), and electron spectroscopy. Ablators with differing composition from low Z (parylene N) to high Z (nickel) were used in multilayer planar targets to produce plasmas with different coronal temperature and collisionality and modify the conditions of hot-electron generation. The variety of available diagnostics allowed full characterization of the population of hot electrons, retrieving their conversion efficiency, time generation and duration, temperature, and angular divergence. The obtained results are shown to be consistent with those from detailed simulations and similar inertial confinement fusion experiments. Based on the measured data, the advantages, reliability, and complementarity of the experimental diagnostics are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number065602
Number of pages16
JournalMatter and Radiation at Extremes
Volume8
Issue number6
Early online date13 Sept 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium, funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Programme (Grant No. 101052200—EUROfusion). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them. The involved teams have operated within the framework of the Enabling Research Project: Grant No. ENR-IFE.01.CEA “Advancing shock ignition for direct-drive inertial fusion.” The work was also supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant No. RGPIN-2019-05013). The authors acknowledge support of the PALS Infrastructure within the MŠMT (MEYS) project Grant No. LM2023068. Staff members of the PALS Research Center appreciate financial support (Grant No. LM2023068) from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports facilitating operation of the PALS facility. The work of JIHT RAS team was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (State Assignment No. 075-01129-23-00). The work at NRMU MEPhI was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Agreement No. 075-15-2021-1361). This project has received funding from the CNR funded Italian research Network ELI-Italy (D.M. No.63108.08.2016). This work was funded by United Kingdom EPSRC Grants No. EP/P026796/1 and No. EP/L01663X/1. The results presented in this paper are based on work carried out between September 2018 and December 2021.

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