Gas-chromatographic determination of carbon-containing impurities in high-purity sulfur

A gas-chromatographic procedure was developed for the determination of carbon-containing impurities in sulfur with a detection limit of 6 x 10^-6%. Carbon-containing substances and elemental carbon can be effectively separated from sulfur samples as CO₂ and COS.     

Ion acceleration regimes in underdense plasmas

Acceleration of large populations of ions up to high (relativistic) energies may represent one of the most important and interesting tools that can be provided by the interaction of petawatt laser pulses with matter. In this paper, the basic mechanisms of ion acceleration by short laser pulses are studied in underdense plasmas. The ion acceleration does not originate directly from the pulse fields, but it is mediated by the electrons in the form of electrostatic fields originating from channeling, double layer formation and Coulomb explosion     

Application of proton radiography in experiments of relevance to inertial confinement fusion

Multi-Mev proton beams generated by target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) during the interaction of an ultra intense laser beam (I≥10¹⁹ W/cm²) with a thin metallic foil (thickness of the order of a few tens of microns) are particularly suited as a particle probe for laser plasma experiments. The proton imaging technique employs a laser-driven proton beam in a point-projection imaging scheme as a diagnostic tool for the detection of electric fields in such experiments. The proton probing technique has been applied in experiments of relevance to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) such as laser heated gasbags and laser-hohlraum experiments. The data provides direct information on the onset of laser beam filamentation and on the plasma expansion in the hohlraum’s interior, and confirms the suitability and usefulness of this technique as an ICF diagnostic.     

Spallative ablation of dielectrics by X-ray laser

A short laser pulse in wide range of wavelengths, from infrared to X-ray, disturbs electron–ion equilibrium and increases pressure in a heated layer. The case where the pulse duration τ _L is shorter than acoustic relaxation time t _s is considered in the paper. It is shown that this short pulse may cause thermomechanical phenomena such as spallative ablation regardless of wavelength. While the physics of electron–ion relaxation strongly depends on wavelength and various electron spectra of substances: there are spectra with an energy gap in semiconductors and dielectrics opposed to gapless continuous spectra in metals. The paper describes entire sequence of thermomechanical processes from expansion, nucleation, foaming, and nanostructuring to spallation with particular attention to spallation by X-ray pulse.     

Electron, positron, and photon wakefield acceleration: trapping, wake overtaking, and ponderomotive acceleration

The electron, positron, and photon acceleration in the first cycle of a laser-driven wakefield is investigated. Separatrices between different types of the particle motion (trapped, reflected by the wakefield and ponderomotive potential, and transient) are demonstrated. The ponderomotive acceleration of electrons can be largely compensated by the wakefield action, in contrast to positrons and positively charged mesons. The electron bunch energy spectrum is analyzed. The maximum upshift of an electromagnetic wave frequency during reflection from the wakefield is obtained.     

Low-frequency relativistic electromagnetic solitons in collisionless plasmas

A relativistic electromagnetic soliton solution in the model of a one-dimensional, unbounded, cold, collisionless plasma is obtained without using the envelope approximation. The breaking of solitons with over-critical amplitudes is observed. The stability of undercritical solitons and the breaking of overcritical solitons are demonstrated by a particle-in-cell computer simulation. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 1, 33–38 (10 July 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Fast ignition by intense laser-accelerated proton beams

The concept of fast ignition with inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a way to reduce the energy required for ignition and burn and to maximize the gain produced by a single implosion. Based on recent experimental findings at the PETAWATT laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, an intense proton beam to achieve fast ignition is proposed. It is produced by direct laser acceleration and focused onto the pellet from the rear side of an irradiated target and can be integrated into a hohlraum for indirect drive ICF.     

Specific features of the acoustic emission upon the optical breakdown in liquid induced by the radiation of Nd:YAG laser

The acoustic emission from the zone of the optical breakdown in liquid is experimentally studied. The spectral characteristics and energy of the acoustic wave that is generated in liquid due to expansion of the plasma formation initiated by the optical breakdown at a wavelength of 532 nm are analyzed. Two spectral peaks that characterize the acoustic emission and the low-frequency shift of the low-frequency peak owing to an increase in the laser pulse energy are demonstrated. In general, the linear dependence of the acoustic pressure on the laser pulse energy is observed. The acoustic data can be used to reconstruct function R(t) that is in agreement with dependences R(t) resulting from the optical data. This circumstance is important for the study of breakdown in opaque media.