ELI-Beamlines (ELI-BL), one of the three pillars of the Extreme Light Infrastructure endeavour, will be in a unique position to perform research in high-energy-density-physics (HEDP), plasma physics ...and ultra-high intensity (UHI) (>1022W/cm2) laser–plasma interaction. Recently the need for HED laboratory physics was identified and the P3 (plasma physics platform) installation under construction in ELI-BL will be an answer. The ELI-BL 10 PW laser makes possible fundamental research topics from high-field physics to new extreme states of matter such as radiation-dominated ones, high-pressure quantum ones, warm dense matter (WDM) and ultra-relativistic plasmas. HEDP is of fundamental importance for research in the field of laboratory astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Reaching such extreme states of matter now and in the future will depend on the use of plasma optics for amplifying and focusing laser pulses. This article will present the relevant technological infrastructure being built in ELI-BL for HEDP and UHI, and gives a brief overview of some research under way in the field of UHI, laboratory astrophysics, ICF, WDM, and plasma optics.
At the Helmholtz center GSI, PHELIX (Petawatt High Energy Laser for heavy Ion eXperiments) has been commissioned for operation in stand-alone mode and, in combination with ions accelerated up to an ...energy of 13 MeV/u by the heavy ion accelerator UNILAC. The combination of PHELIX with the heavy-ion beams available at GSI enables a large variety of unique experiments. Novel research opportunities are spanning from the study of ion–matter interaction, through challenging new experiments in atomic physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics, into the field of relativistic plasma physics.
Laser Challenges for Fast Ignition Zuegel, J. D.; Borneis, S.; Barty, C. ...
Fusion science and technology,
04/2006, Letnik:
49, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The laser challenges and state of the art in high-energy, solid-state petawatt lasers for fast ignition (FI) research are reviewed. A number of new laser systems are currently under construction or ...being planned that will facilitate proof-of-principle FI experiments. Recent technological advances in each of the major ultrafast laser subsystems are reported, including chirped-pulse generation and broadband amplification in the front end, high-energy amplification, and pulse compression with adaptive wavefront correction. Unique challenges related to operating high-energy chirped-pulse-amplification laser systems for FI, such as protection from target back reflections, are also addressed.
This paper reports on the status of the PHELIX petawatt laser which is
built at the Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in close
collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ...(LLNL), and
the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) in France. First
experiments carried out with the chirped pulse amplification (CPA)
front-end will also be briefly reviewed.
The PHELIX facility is available to users since 2008. Nanosecond pulses up to 500 J are utilized at present for experiments combining the heavy ions accelerated at the GSI LINAC facility, while ...sub-picosecond 200-TW pulses are used in laser stand-alone experiments. A review of the laser performance and future developments is shown.
Intense beams of energetic heavy ions from SIS-18 at GSI can heat extended volumes of condensed matter to a temperature of several eV. The matter at about solid density and a temperature near or ...above the Fermi temperature is referred to as Warm Dense Matter (WDM). The knowledge of radiative properties and the equation of state of WDM is particularly limited because standard perturbative theoretical approaches are not applicable in this regime. The kilojoule PHELIX laser at GSI can be used to produce X-rays of several keV energy for scattering diagnostics of ion beam heated matter. In this paper special target configurations for compression and isochoric heating of matter with heavy ions are presented. The possibilities of X-ray scattering diagnostics of such targets are discussed. The target parameters achievable with the new FAIR facility are calculated.
A transient collisionally excited X-ray laser has been put into operation using the front end of the PHELIX laser system as a pump laser. Strong lasing at 22 nm has been observed in nickel-like ...zirconium.
Extreme states of matter such as Warm Dense Matter “WDM” and Dense Strongly Coupled Plasmas “DSCP” play a key role in many high energy density experiments, however, creating WDM and DSCP in a manner ...that can be quantified is not readily feasible. In this paper, isochoric heating of matter by intense heavy ion beams in spherical symmetry is investigated for WDM and DSCP research: the heating times are long (100
ns), the samples are macroscopically large (millimeter-size) and the symmetry is advantageous for diagnostic purposes. A dynamic confinement scheme in spherical symmetry is proposed which allows even ion beam heating times that are long on the hydrodynamic time scale of the target response. A particular selection of low-
Z target tamper and X-ray probe radiation parameters allows to identify the X-ray scattering from the target material and use it for independent charge state measurements
Z* of the material under study.
Abstract
The design and the early commissioning of the ELI-Beamlines laser facility’s 30 J, 30 fs, 10 Hz HAPLS (High-repetition-rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System) beam transport (BT) system to the ...P3 target chamber are described in detail. It is the world’s first and with 54 m length, the longest distance high average power petawatt (PW) BT system ever built. It connects the HAPLS pulse compressor via the injector periscope with the 4.5 m diameter P3 target chamber of the plasma physics group in hall E3. It is the largest target chamber of the facility and was connected first to the BT system. The major engineering challenges are the required high vibration stability mirror support structures, the high pointing stability optomechanics as well as the required levels for chemical and particle cleanliness of the vacuum vessels to preserve the high laser damage threshold of the dielectrically coated high-power mirrors. A first commissioning experiment at low pulse energy shows the full functionality of the BT system to P3 and the novel experimental infrastructure.
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