激光聚变气体靶核反应速率双峰现象

利用一维数值模拟分析解释了神光Ⅲ原型高中子产额内爆实验中核反应速率的双峰现象。双峰现象的出现是内爆中核反应区能量竞争的结果。在核反应期间反应区离子的增能机制主要是压缩做功,能量耗散机制主要是离子-电子的库仑碰撞。冲击波在DT燃料中的来回反射,使得核反应区的压缩做功出现强弱交替。压缩做功与库仑碰撞能耗的竞争导致反应区离子内能出现上下波动,使得核反应速率出现双峰现象。实验测量的核反应速率峰值时间与数值模拟结果相一致。     

激光聚变驱动器的光束相干性及其控制:回顾与展望

高功率强激光与物质相互作用蕴藏着丰富的非线性效应,激光聚变驱动器的光束具有高度相干性,它在光束传输过程中极大地凸显了这种效应,并不可避免地制约着激光功率的提升和激光能量的有效利用。回顾激光聚变驱动器的发展史,在提升激光输出能力的主线外,还存在一条与光束相干性做斗争的暗线贯穿其中。以激光与物质相互作用为牵引,从高功率强激光传输中非线性效应抑制和激光等离子体相互作用的抑制两方面回顾了激光聚变驱动器光束相干性的控制现状,并针对潜在需求,展望了未来高功率激光发展的创新技术。     

Thermonuclear fusion in a strong laser field

Thermonuclear fusion induced by the irradiation of solid deuterated cluster targets and foils with fields of strong femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses is discussed. The thermonuclear-fusion process D(d, n)³He in a collision of two deuterons at an energy of 50 to 100 keV in a deuterium cluster target irradiated with a strong laser pulse is discussed. A theory of thermonuclear fusion proceeding upon the irradiation of clusters formed by deuterium iodide (DI) molecules with the field of a superintense femtosecond laser pulse is developed. This theory is based on an above-barrier process in which the sequential multiple inner ionization of atomic ions within a cluster is accompanied by field-induced outer ionization. The yield of neutrons from thermonuclear fusion in a deuteron-deuteron collision after the completion of a laser pulse is calculated. The yield of neutrons is determined for the thermonuclear-fusion reaction proceeding in the interaction of an intense picosecond laser pulse with thin TiD₂ foils. A multiple ionization of titanium atoms at the front edge of the laser pulse is considered. The heating of free electron occurs in induced inverse bremsstrahlung in the process of electron scattering on multiply charged titanium ions. The yield of alpha particles in the thermonuclear-fusion reaction involving protons and ¹¹B nuclei that is induced in microdrops by a strong laser field is determined. Experimental data on laser-induced thermonuclear fusion are discussed.     

Fiber Raman laser pumped by a Nd:YAG laser

We have pumped a fiber Raman laser with a cw mode-locked Nd:YAG laser operating at 1319 nm and generated pulses as short as 160 fsec using soliton pulse shaping in the fiber. We have also constructed a completely integrated oscillator loop using a fiber optic coupler and fusion splicing.     

Super high-power laser systems and their application

Super high-power laser systems have been studied. GEKKO XII glass laser, LEKKO VIII CO₂ laser, diode-pumped solid-state laser and PW cpa Nd glass laser have been developed at Osaka University. They have proved to be very effective for laser fusion research. Various applications in the wide fields are presented.     

Application of infrared thermography for laser metal-wire additive manufacturing in vacuum

Infrared (IR) thermography is applied to study the thermal behavior of laser metal-wire additive manufacturing (AM) in vacuum. IR thermal images are obtained and analyzed. Based upon IR thermography analysis, the thermal cycle, remelting and cooling rate in AM process is discussed. In addition, the width of cladding layer is predicted and defect like lack of fusion is detected.     

Infrared/laser multi-sensor fusion and tracking based on the multi-scale model

The state estimation problem of targets detected by infrared/laser composite detection system with different sampling rates was studied in this paper. An effective state estimation algorithm based on data fusion is presented. Because sampling rate of infrared detection system is much higher than that of the laser detection system, the theory of multi-scale analysis is used to establish multi-scale model in this algorithm. At the fine scale, angle information provided by infrared detection system is used to estimate the target state through the unscented Kalman filter. It makes full use of the high frequency characteristic of infrared detection system to improve target state estimation accuracy. At the coarse scale, due to the sampling ratio of infrared and laser detection systems is an integer multiple, the angle information can be fused directly with the distance information of laser detection system to determine the target location. The fused information is served as observation, while the converted measurement Kalman filter (CMKF) is used to estimate the target state, which greatly reduces the complexity of filtering process and gets the optimal fusion estimation. The simulation results of tracking a target in 3-D space by infrared and laser detection systems demonstrate that the proposed algorithm in this paper is efficient and can obtain better performance than traditional algorithm.     

Effect of laser spot size on fusion neutron yield in laser--deuterium cluster interactions

The effect of the laser spot size on the neutron yield of table-top nuclear fusion from explosions of a femtosecond intense laser pulse heated deuterium clusters is investigated by using a simplified model, in which the cluster size distribution and the energy attenuation of the laser as it propagates through the cluster jet are taken into account. It has been found that there exists a proper laser spot size for the maximum fusion neutron yield for a given laser pulse and a specific deuterium gas cluster jet. The proper spot size, which is dependent on the laser parameters and the cluster jet parameters, has been calculated and compared with the available experimental data. A reasonable agreement between the calculated results and the published experimental results is found.     

Three-directional spectral dispersion for smoothing of a laser irradiance profile

In inertial confinement fusion research, uniform laser irradiation on a fusion target is a key issue. We propose a new method of beam smoothing in which we use three-directional spectral dispersion to reduce the coherent speckle that is unavoidable in the usual two-directional spectral-dispersion scheme. We have used this smoothing technique in a Nd:glass laser system and have demonstrated that the coherent speckle is reduced by a factor of 2.9 from that in two-directional spectral dispersion.     

用于直接驱动的快速变焦新方案

在直接驱动方式的惯性约束聚变装置中, 实现中心点火对靶丸的辐照均匀性要求极高. 然而, 在激光脉冲持续时间内, 由于激光与靶丸的相互作用致使靶丸逐渐缩小, 从而导致辐照均匀性降低以及交叉光束能量转移等不利因素增强, 进而影响点火的进展. 为此, 提出了用于直接驱动的快速变焦新方案, 即利用特殊设计的电光晶体及电极结构, 对激光束附加一个实时、快速变化的球面波前, 以控制打靶激光束的聚焦位置和焦斑大小, 从而达到提高靶面辐照均匀性和抑制交叉光束能量转移的目的. 通过建立快速变焦的理论模型, 并基于激光与靶丸相互作用物理过程的分析, 对焦斑尺寸、附加球面波曲率半径等参数随时间的变化规律进行了数值模拟和分析. 结果表明, 本文提出的快速变焦方案可有效地实现对焦斑与靶丸半径比的实时控制, 且对空间滤波器滤波效果及三倍频转换效率并无明显影响.     

Diagnostic technique for measuring fusion reaction rate for inertial confinement fusion experiments at Shen Guang-III prototype laser facility

A study is conducted using a two-dimensional simulation program(Lared-s)with the goal of developing a technique to evaluate the effect of Rayleigh–Taylor growth in a neutron fusion reaction region.Two peaks of fusion reaction rate are simulated by using a two-dimensional simulation program(Lared-s)and confirmed by the experimental results.A neutron temporal diagnostic(NTD)system is developed with a high temporal resolution of~30 ps at the Shen Guang-III(SG-III)prototype laser facility in China,to measure the fusion reaction rate history.With the shape of neutron reaction rate curve and the spherical harmonic function in this paper,the degree of Rayleigh–Taylor growth and the main source of the neutron yield in our experiment can be estimated qualitatively.This technique,including the diagnostic system and the simulation program,may provide important information for obtaining a higher neutron yield in implosion experiments of inertial confinement fusion.     

Interferometric inspection of glass shell laser targets

Inspection of glass shell laser fusion targets using a Zamin Lebedev interferometer is described. Computed calibration curves for wall thickness calculation are reported.     

激光核聚变与高功率激光:历史与进展

回顾激光聚变近50年来的发展历程,评述聚变物理与高功率激光驱动器的研究进展,展望聚变能源未来前景.     

A plasma channel scheme for the interaction of an intense femtosecond laser pulse with a deuterium cluster jet

We propose a plasma channel scheme to obtain an improved table-top laser driven fusion neutron yield as a result of explosions of large deuterium clusters irradiated by an intense laser pulse. A cylindrical plasma channel is created by two moderate intensity laser prepulses at the edge of a deuterium cluster jet along which an intense main laser pulse propagates several nanoseconds later. With the aid of this plasma channel, the main laser pulse will be allowed to deposit its energy into the central region of the deuterium gas jet where the cluster sizes are larger and the atomic density is higher. The plasma channel formation and its impact on the deuterium ion energy spectrum and the consequent fusion neutron yield have been investigated. The calculated results show that a remarkable increase of the table-top laser driven fusion neutron yield would be expected.     

激光辐照均匀性与相息相位板计算研究

分析激光聚变中的辐照均匀性(光滑化)原理和方法,对相息相位板(KinoformPhasePlateKPP)进行理论分析和计算研究。结果表明,最佳集能效率可到96%,最小的不均匀性可到14%。对我国激光聚变中的辐照均匀性提出一些看法。     

ICF激光驱动器间接驱动兼顾直接驱动打靶角度的优化设计

为了增加ICF激光驱动器的灵活性,使其可满足多种聚变点火方式,激光驱动器激光打靶角度的优化设计应以间接驱动为主,同时兼顾直接驱动。以神光Ⅲ主机装置为例,基于已有的间接驱动激光打靶角度设计,用球谐模和三维辐照场方法,完成了兼顾直接驱动打靶角度的优化,结果表明优化设计的打靶角度可实现小于1%的球靶表面辐照均匀性。同时分析了激光参数对辐照性能的影响,并获得了满足直接驱动要求的陡边小焦斑设计。     

Influence of fusion splice on high power ytterbium-doped fiber laser with master oscillator multi-stage power amplifiers structure

We have developed models to investigate the power properties of monolithic fiber laser with master oscillator multi-stage power amplifiers configuration. In the simulation the effect of optical characteristics of fiber fusion splice was considered, which was introduced by connecting fiber amplifiers. The theoretical modeling was established based on the classic theory of rate equations and the computational method was described in detail. On the basis of three high-power fiber lasers with different structures, we analyzed the splice loss and return loss, and how they influence the distribution of laser power in the system. The results showed that, on the present splicing level, both the enhancement of the pump capacity of fiber laser and the reduction of the quantity of power amplifier modules were effective strategies to accomplish fiber laser with tens of thousands of watts output.     

μ-子催化核聚变中强脉冲激光对介原子μ3He的电离

数值求解了一维含时的Schr?dinger方程，研究了μ子催化核聚变反应中激光强度和波长对介原子μ³He电离的影响.发现当激光强度为10¹⁹—10²³W/cm²量级时，介原子μ³He有2.7%左右的电离率；当激光强度达到6.0×10²⁴W/cm²时，对介原子μ³He 有显著的电离，并且电离率随着激光的强度、波长而递增，进而会有效提高μ子的催化效率. 关键词： μ子 核聚变 激光 电离     

A simple analytical model of laser direct-drive thin shell target implosion

A high-neutron yield platform imploded by a thin shell target is generally built to probe nuclear science problems, and it has the advantages of high neutron yield, ultrashort fusion time, micro fusion zone, isotropic and monoenergetic neutron. Some analytical models have been proposed to interpret exploding-pusher target implosion driven by a long wavelength laser, whereas they are imperfect for a 0.35 μm laser implosion experiment. When using the 0.35 μm laser, the shell is ablated and accelerated to high implosion velocity governed by Newton's law, ablation acceleration and quasi-adiabatic compression models are suitable to explain the implosion of a laser direct-drive thin shell target. The new analytical model scales bang time, ion temperature and neutron yield for large variations in laser power, target radius, shell thickness, and fuel pressure. The predicted results of the analytical model are in agreement with experimental data on the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility, 100 kJ laser facility, Omega, and NIF, it demonstrates that the analytical model benefits the understanding of experiment performance and optimizing the target design of high neutron yield implosion.     

Stabilization effect of Weibel modes due to inverse bremsstrahlung absorption in laser fusion plasma using Krook collisions model

In this work, the Weibel instability due to inverse bremsstrahlung absorption in laser fusion plasma has been investigated. The stabilization effect due to the coupling of the self-generated magnetic field by Weibel instability with the laser wave field is explicitly showed. The main result obtained in this work is that the inclusion of self-generated magnetic field due to Weibel instability to the inverse bremsstrahlung absorption causes a stabilizing effect of excited Weibel modes. We found a decrease in the spectral range of Weibel unstable modes. This decrease is accompanied by a reduction of two orders in the growth rate of instability or even stabilization of these modes. It has been shown that the previous analyses of the Weibel instability due to inverse bremsstrahlung have overestimated the values of the generated magnetic fields. Therefore, the generation of magnetic fields by the Weibel instability due to inverse bremsstrahlung should not affect the experiences of an inertial confinement fusion.