C. Fourment

Inhibition of fast electron energy deposition due to preplasma filling of cone-attached targets

We present experimental and numerical results on the propagation and energy deposition of laser-generated fast electrons into conical targets. The first part reports on experimental measurements performed in various configurations in order to assess the predicted benefit of conical targets over standard planar ones. For the conditions investigated here, the fast electron-induced heating is found to be much weaker in cone-guided targets irradiated at a laser wavelength of 1.057μm, whereas frequency doubling of the laser pulse permits us to bridge the disparity between conical and planar targets. This result underscores the prejudicial role of the prepulse-generated plasma, whose confinement is enhanced in conical geometry. The second part is mostly devoted to the particle-in-cell modeling of the laser-cone interaction. In qualitative agreement with the experimental data, the calculations show that the presence of a large preplasma leads to a significant decrease in the fast electron density and energy flux...

Proton radiography of laser-driven imploding target in cylindrical geometry

An experiment was done at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Vulcan laser petawatt laser) to study fast electron propagation in cylindrically compressed targets, a subject of interest for fast ignition. This was performed in the framework of the experimental road map of HiPER (the European high power laser energy research facility project). In the experiment, protons accelerated by a picosecond-laser pulse were used to radiograph a 220 μm diameter cylinder (20 μm wall, filled with low density foam), imploded with ∼200 J of green laser light in four symmetrically incident beams of pulse length 1 ns. Point projection proton backlighting was used to get the compression history and the stagnation time. Results are also compared to those from hard x-ray radiography. Detailed comparison with two-dimensional numerical hydrosimulations has been done using a Monte Carlo code adapted to describe multiple scattering and plasma effects. Finally we develop a simple analytical model to estimate the performance of prot...

Laser-driven cylindrical compression of targets for fast electron transport study in warm and dense plasmas

Fast ignition requires a precise knowledge of fast electron propagation in a dense hydrogen plasma. In this context, a dedicated HiPER (High Power laser Energy Research) experiment was performed on the VULCAN laser facility where the propagation of relativistic electron beams through cylindrically compressed plastic targets was studied. In this paper, we characterize the plasma parameters such as temperature and density during the compression of cylindrical polyimide shells filled with CH foams at three different initial densities. X-ray and proton radiography were used to measure the cylinder radius at different stages of the compression. By comparing both diagnostics results with 2D hydrodynamic simulations, we could infer densities from 2 to 11 g/cm3 and temperatures from 30 to 120 eV at maximum compression at the center of targets. According to the initial foam density, kinetic, coupled (sometimes degenerated) plasmas were obtained. The temporal and spatial evolution of the resulting areal densities a...

X-ray absorption for the study of warm dense matter

A time-resolved ultrafast x-ray spectrometer is developed in order to extract the x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) structure of an Al sample in the warm dense matter regime. In this context, an intense, broadband, short (ps) x-ray source based on the M-band emission from high-Z plasmas is optimized to maximize the photon flux around the Al K-edge. An experiment is reported, devoted to probe a solid Al foil isochorically heated by laser-produced protons up to 3?eV. The experimental x-ray spectra lead to an estimation of the electron temperature with an accuracy of 15%. In good agreement with two different theoretical approaches, the observed progressive smoothing of the XANES structures is clearly related to a significant loss of ion?ion correlation.

Broad M-band multi-keV x-ray emission from plasmas created by short laser pulses

The investigation of the broad M-band x-ray emission from high-Z plasmas created by a laser, with a 30 fs to 3 ps pulse duration and achieving 1015–17 W/cm2 on target, is reported. Experimental emission spectra are measured in the energy range from 1.50 to 1.75 keV and discussed as potential backlighting x-ray sources for time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy studies. They are compared with theoretical nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium calculations of x-ray emission.

Unraveling resistive versus collisional contributions to relativistic electron beam stopping power in cold-solid and in warm-dense plasmas

We present results on laser-driven relativistic electron beam propagation through aluminum samples, which are either solid and cold or compressed and heated by laser-induced shock. A full numerical description of fast electron generation and transport is found to reproduce the experimental absolute Kα yield and spot size measurements for varying target thicknesses, and to sequentially quantify the collisional and resistive electron stopping powers. The results demonstrate that both stopping mechanisms are enhanced in compressed Al samples and are attributed to the increase in the medium density and resistivity, respectively. For the achieved time- and space-averaged electronic current density, ⟨jh⟩∼8×1010 A/cm2 in the samples, the collisional and resistive stopping powers in warm and compressed Al are estimated to be 1.5 keV/μm and 0.8 keV/μm, respectively. By contrast, for cold and solid Al, the corresponding estimated values are 1.1 keV/μm and 0.6 keV/μm. Prospective numerical simulations involving high...

Double conical crystal x-ray spectrometer for high resolution ultrafast x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy of Al K edge

An x-ray spectrometer devoted to dynamical studies of transient systems using the x-ray absorption fine spectroscopy technique is presented in this article. Using an ultrafast laser-induced x-ray source, this optical device based on a set of two potassium acid phthalate conical crystals allows the extraction of x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy structures following the Al absorption K edge. The proposed experimental protocol leads to a measurement of the absorption spectra free from any crystal reflectivity defaults and shot-to-shot x-ray spectral fluctuation. According to the detailed analysis of the experimental results, a spectral resolution of 0.7 eV rms and relative fluctuation lower than 1% rms are achieved, demonstrated to be limited by the statistics of photon counting on the x-ray detector.

Measurement of reflectivity of spherically bent crystals using Kα signal from hot electrons produced by laser-matter interaction.

In an experiment at the laser facility ECLIPSE of the CELIA laboratory, University of Bordeaux, we measure the reflectivity of spherically bent crystals that are commonly used to investigate the propagation of fast electrons through the Kα radiation they generate in matter. The experimental reflectivity compares well with predictions from a ray-tracing code that takes into account the specific geometry, although the crystals seem to suffer from aging problems.

Study of plasma heating induced by fast electrons

We studied the induced plasma heating in three different kinds of targets: mass limited, foam targets, and large mass targets. The experiment was performed at Alise Laser Facility of CEA/CESTA. The laser system emitted a ∼1 ps pulse with ∼10 J energy at a wavelength of ∼1 μm. Mass limited targets had three layers with thicknesses of 10 μm C8H8, 1 μm C8H7Cl, and 10 μm C8H8 with size of 100×100 μm2. Detailed spectroscopic analysis of x rays emitted from the Cl tracer showed that it was possible to heat up the plasma from mass limited targets to a temperature of ∼250 eV with density of ∼1021 cm−3. The plasma heating is only produced by fast electron transport in the target, being the 10 μm C8H8 overcoating thick enough to prevent any possible direct irradiation of the tracer layer even taking into account mass-ablation due to the prepulse. These results demonstrate that with mass limited targets, it is possible to generate a plasma heated up to several hundreds eV. It is also very important for research conc...

Collimated propagation of fast electron beams accelerated by high-contrast laser pulses in highly-resistive shocked-carbon

Collimated transport of ultrahigh intensity electron current was observed in cold and in laser-shocked vitreous carbon, in agreement with simulation predictions. The fast electron beams were created by coupling high-intensity and high-contrast laser pulses onto copper-coated cones drilled into the carbon samples. The guiding mechanism-observed only for times before the shock breakout at the inner cone tip-is due to self-generated resistive magnetic fields of ∼0.5-1  kT arising from the intense currents of fast electrons in vitreous carbon, by virtue of its specific high resistivity over the range of explored background temperatures. The spatial distribution of the electron beams, injected through the samples at different stages of compression, was characterized by side-on imaging of hard x-ray fluorescence.