Daniel S. Clark

Inverse bremsstrahlung stabilization of noise in the generation of ultrashort intense pulses by backward Raman amplification

Inverse bremsstrahlung absorption of the pump laser beam in a backward Raman amplifier over the round-trip light transit time through the subcritical density plasma can more than double the electron temperature of the plasma and produce time-varying axial temperature gradients. The resulting increased Landau damping of the plasma wave and detuning of the resonance can act to stabilize the pump against unwanted amplification of Langmuir noise without disrupting nonlinear amplification of the femtosecond seed pulse. Because the heating rate increases with the charge state Z, only low-Z plasmas (hydrogen, helium, or helium–hydrogen mixtures) will maintain a low enough temperature for efficient operation.

Regime for a self-ionizing Raman laser amplifier

Backward Raman amplification and compression at high power might occur if a long pumping laser pulse is passed through a plasma to interact resonantly with a counter-propagating short seed pulse [V. M. Malkin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4448–4451 (1999)]. One critical issue, however, is that the pump may be unacceptably depleted due to spontaneous Raman backscatter from intrinsic fluctuations in the amplifying plasma medium prior to its useful interaction with the seed. Premature backscatter may be avoided, however, by employing a gaseous medium with pump intensities too low to ionize the medium and using the intense seed to produce the plasma by rapid photoionization as it is being amplified [V. M. Malkin et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 4698–4699 (2001)]. In addition to allowing that only rather low power pumps be used, photoionization introduces a damping of the short pulse which must be overcome by the Raman growth rate for net amplification to occur. The parameter space of gas densities, laser wavelengths, ...

The possibility of high amplitude driven contained modes during ion Bernstein wave experiments in the tokamak fusion test reactor

Extremely high quasilinear diffusion rates for energetic beam ions can be deduced from mode conversion experiments in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [K. M. McGuire, H. Adler, P. Alling et al., Phys. Plasmas 2(6), 2176 (1995)]. A comparison of the experimental loss rates with the theoretical prediction for the interaction of energetic ions with mode converted ion Bernstein waves showed the theory to underpredict the diffusion coefficient by a factor of 30–70. An anomalously high diffusion coefficient might enhance the advantageous channeling of energetic alpha particle energy in a tokamak reactor. Resolving this discrepancy is thus of importance from the standpoint of practical interest in an improved tokamak reactor as well as from the standpoint of academic interest in basic wave–particle theory. A mechanism is proposed for this accelerated diffusion involving the excitation of a contained mode, possibly similar to that used in explaining the ICE (ion cyclotron emission) phenomenon, near the edge...

Particle-in-cell Simulations of Raman Laser Amplification in Ionizing Plasmas

By using the amplifying laser pulse in a plasma-based backward Raman laser amplifier to generate the plasma by photo-ionization of a gas simultaneous with the amplification process, possible instabilities of the pumping laser pulse can be avoided. Particle-in-cell simulations are used to study this amplification mechanism, and earlier results using more elementary models of the Raman interaction are verified [D.S. Clark and N.J. Fisch, Phys. Plasmas, 9 (6): 2772-2780, 2002]. The effects (unique to amplification in ionizing plasmas and not included in previous simulations) of blue-shifting of the pump and seed laser pulses and the generation of a wake are observed not significantly to impact the amplification process. As expected theoretically, the peak output intensity is found to be limited to I {approx} 10{sup 17} W/cm{sup 2} by forward Raman scattering of the amplifying seed. The integrity of the ionization front of the seed pulse against the development of a possible transverse modulation instability is also demonstrated.

Operating Regime for a Backward Raman Laser Amplifier in Preformed Plasma

A critical issue in the generation of ultra-intense, ultra-short laser pulses by backward Raman scattering in plasma is the stability of the pumping pulse to premature backscatter from thermal fluctuations in the preformed plasma. Malkin et al. [V.M. Malkin, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 (6):1208-1211, 2000] demonstrated that density gradients may be used to detune the Raman resonance in such a way that backscatter of the pump from thermal noise can be stabilized while useful Raman amplification persists. Here plasma conditions for which the pump is stable to thermal Raman backscatter in a homogeneous plasma and the density gradients necessary to stabilize the pump for other plasma conditions are quantified. Other ancillary constraints on a Raman amplifier are also considered to determine a specific region in the Te-he plane where Raman amplification is feasible. By determining an operability region, the degree of uncertainty in density or temperature tolerable for an experimental Raman amplifier is thus also identified. The fluid code F3D, which includes the effects of thermal fluctuations, is used to verify these analytic estimates.

Particle-in-cell Simulations of Raman Laser Amplification in Preformed Plasmas

Two critical issues in the amplification of laser pulses by backward Raman scattering in plasma slabs are the saturation mechanism of the amplification effect (which determines the maximum attainable output intensity of a Raman amplifier) and the optimal plasma density for amplification. Previous investigations [V.M. Malkin, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 82 (22):4448-4451, 1999] identified forward Raman scattering and modulational instabilities of the amplifying seed as the likely saturation mechanisms and lead to an estimated unfocused output intensities of 10{sup 17}W/cm{sup 2}. The optimal density for amplification is determined by the competing constraints of minimizing the plasma density so as to minimize the growth rate of the instabilities leading to saturation but also maintaining the plasma sufficiently dense that the driven Langmuir wave responsible for backscattering does not break prematurely. Here, particle-in-cell code are simulations presented which verify that saturation of backward Raman amplification does occur at intensities of {approx}10{sup 17}W/cm{sup 2} by forward Raman scattering and modulational instabilities. The optimal density for amplification in a plasma with the representative temperature of T(sub)e = 200 eV is also shown in these simulations to be intermediate between the cold plasma wave-breaking density and the density limit found by assuming a water bag electron distribution function.