Refractive fringe diagnostics of laser produced plasmas

A simple formula which enables one to determine the electron densities of laser produced plasmas using refractive fringes in shadowgrams and Schlieren images is deduced and applied to experimental data. The results agree well with those obtained by conventional interferometry.     

Structure of magnetic fields generated in laser produced plasmas

A numerical model is used to interpret recent results on magnetic fields generated in laser plasma experiments. Satisfactory agreement is found between model predictions and experimental observations of the morphology of the field. The principal features of the measured density profile are also reproduced.     

Time-resolved X-ray spectrometry of UV laser produced plasmas

Preliminary experiments using an X-ray streak filter spectrometer employing a Au/CsI bifurcated photocathode to investigate the X-ray history of UV (350 nm) laser produced plasmas are reported. Novel use of the streak spectrometer permits a direct and precise fiducial record of the laser pulse to be made from specularly scattered laser light, in true streak time relative to the X-ray record. Initial data indicates a constant 700 eV temperature during the laser pulse; time-resolved particulars are compared to simulations made by the design code LILAC.     

White-light parametric instabilities in plasmas

Parametric instabilities driven by partially coherent radiation in plasmas are described by a generalized statistical Wigner-Moyal set of equations, formally equivalent to the full wave equation, coupled to the plasma fluid equations. A generalized dispersion relation for stimulated Raman scattering driven by a partially coherent pump field is derived, revealing a growth rate dependence, with the coherence width sigma of the radiation field, scaling with 1/sigma for backscattering (three-wave process), and with 1/sigma1/2 for direct forward scattering (four-wave process). Our results demonstrate the possibility to control the growth rates of these instabilities by properly using broadband pump radiation fields.     

Fractional ionization in plasmas produced by pulsed laser ablation

A pulsed infrared laser (Q-switched Nd:Yag) is employed to irradiate different metal targets having atomic number from Z =13 up to Z =82. The high laser fluence deposited on the metals, of the order of 100 v J/cm, produces high ablation yield and a plasma generation at the target surface. The emitted species are neutral and ionized atoms. Both components have been investigated in terms of yield emission, time-of-flight measurements and angular distribution. Results indicate that the main emission occurs mainly along the normal to the target surface, that the etching, at high fluence, is of the order of 10 v atoms/ pulse, that the atoms velocities are of the order of 10 v m/s, that the maximum ion energies are of the order of keV. During the laser irradiation, expanding and non-equilibrium plasma is produced in front of the target. The plasma has a fraction ionization depending by the metal species and generally within 10% and 80%. The plasma'temperature, at high fluence, can be theoretically calculated and reaches about 10 v K. The fractional ionization of the plasma, experimentally measured, has been investigated as a function of the laser fluence and of the energy binding of the target molecules. The ion emission yield is presented and discussed in view of the possibility to realize a laser ion source for ion accelerators.     

Experimental studies on energy transfer in laser produced plasmas

Investigations about total neutron fluxes and back scattered radiation from the plasma are performed. The laser power impinging onto the solid deuterium target is ranging from 10 to 22 gigawatts.     

激光等离子体辐射不透明度的细致模型

细致谱线模型是等离子体辐射不透明度精确计算的理论方法,涉及到很多原子物理过程,需要计算大量的、精确的原子参数.在高温、稠密等离子体环境下,谱线展宽、组态相互作用、电离能下降等效应与不透明度的准确计算密切相关.文章重点介绍了目前作者在辐射不透明度细致谱线模型研究方面取得的进展情况,并且与国内外典型的实验和理论结果进行了对比.     

Interpretational problems of interferograms of asymmetric laser produced plasmas

Computer simulations have been made of interferograms produced in typical short pulse laser produced plasma experiments. It is shown that for certain plasma profiles and values of scale length the reconstructed profile is an inaccurate representation of the original profile. It is also shown that the interferometer focussing accuracy affects the maximum measurable electron density and the implied plasma scale length.     

Soft X-ray emission of continua from laser produced plasmas

Plasmas produced irradiating plane targets of low Z elements with moderate energy (3–10 J) lasers emit considerable amounts of free-free and free-bound continua in the soft X-ray region (10–100 Å) of the spectrum. With intensity calibrated grazing incidence spectrographs an intensity of the order of 10⁸ W sr^–1 Å^–1 cm^–2 emitted by the densest portion of the plasma inside the crater formed at the interaction was determined. This is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for a plasma of predetermined parameters. In case of high Z elements the continuum emitted has a very smooth wavelength dependence.     

Spatial resolution of laser produced plasmas with X-ray crystals

X-ray spectra taken with good quality flat crystals can yield spatial resolution of small plasma sources at the expense of spectral resolution. 40 μm spatial resolution of a laser-produced aluminum plasma was obtained using lines of wavelength ～6 Å.     

Holographic interferometry of laser produced plasmas using picosecond pulses

Interferograms have been obtained using a holographic system illuminated by picosecond pulses. The technique has been applied to a picosecond laser produced plasma, and the total number of electrons present in the plasma has been measured to be at least 5 × 10¹⁴for a laser energy of 0.1 joule.     

Electromagnetic instabilities in weakly relativistic plasmas

The spin-orbit coupling effects on the velocity space electromagnetic instabilities have been analytically studied. In this order, first, a suitable form of the kinetic theory is introduced and then, results are investigated for real ICF and astrophysical plasmas. For the ICF plasmas, Low intensity magnetic field can not provide a suitable field for effectiveness of the particle’s spin, while transmission to astrophysical subjects is different. For astrophysical applications, the spin-orbit coupling effects can lead to addition free energy so that, it can overcoming the non relativistic effects and leads to increasing the instability growth rate.     

Two-stream instabilities in degenerate quantum plasmas

The quantum effects on the plasma two-stream instability are studied by the dielectric function approach. The analysis suggests that the instability condition in a degenerate dense plasma deviates from the classical theory when the electron drift velocity is comparable to the Fermi velocity. Specifically, for a high wave vector comparable to the Fermi wave vector, a degenerate quantum plasma has larger regime of instability than predicted by the classical theory. A regime is identified, where there are unstable plasma waves with frequency 1.5 times of a normal Langmuir wave.     

Resistive instabilities in current-carrying magnetized plasmas

The stability of ion electrostatic waves with propagation vector nearly normal to a static magnetic field in a collisional plasma carrying a field-aligned current is investigated in the cold plasma approximation.     

X-ray streak camera observations of laser produced plasma corona development

Combination of pinhole imaging of laser produced plasma soft X-ray emission and X-ray streak photography allows simultaneous space and time resolved study of the axial development of the high density region of the plasma created from a plane Cu target by a 6 nsec 1.06 μ laser pulse.     

X-ray temperature measurements of laser produced plasmas in large radiation fields

The modification to the emitted X-ray signal from a laser produced plasma due to the change in the electron collisional behaviour resulting from the classical electron oscillation is calculated. It is shown that although the total emitted flux may be substantially increased, two foil measurements of temperature should not be greatly in error.