H. Shiraga

Kilotesla Magnetic Field due to a Capacitor-Coil Target Driven by High Power Laser

Laboratory generation of strong magnetic fields opens new frontiers in plasma and beam physics, astro- and solar-physics, materials science, and atomic and molecular physics. Although kilotesla magnetic fields have already been produced by magnetic flux compression using an imploding metal tube or plasma shell, accessibility at multiple points and better controlled shapes of the field are desirable. Here we have generated kilotesla magnetic fields using a capacitor-coil target, in which two nickel disks are connected by a U-turn coil. A magnetic flux density of 1.5 kT was measured using the Faraday effect 650 μm away from the coil, when the capacitor was driven by two beams from the GEKKO-XII laser (at 1 kJ (total), 1.3 ns, 0.53 or 1 μm, and 5 × 1016 W/cm2).

Direct-drive hydrodynamic instability experiments on the GEKKO XII laser

Hydrodynamic instabilities, such as the Rayleigh–Taylor (R–T) instability, play a critical role in inertial confinement fusion as they finally cause fuel-pusher mixing that potentially quenches thermonuclear ignition. Good understanding of the instabilities is necessary to limit the mixing within a tolerable level. A series of experiments has been conducted on the GEKKO XII laser facility [C. Yamanaka et al., IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-17, 1639 (1981)] to measure hydrodynamic instabilities in planar foils directly irradiated by 0.53 μm laser light. It has been found that (1) the imprint is reasonably explained by an imprint model based on the equation of motion with the pressure perturbation smoothed by the cloudy-day effect, and (2) the experimental R–T growth rate is significantly reduced from the classical growth rate due probably to ablative stabilization enhanced by nonlocal heat transport.

Prepulse-free 30-TW, 1-ps Nd:glass laser.

A 30-TW,1.0-ps laser pulse at 1053 nm has been generated by chirped-pulse amplification in a large-aperture Nd:phosphate glass laser system. A peak-to-prepulse intensity ratio of better than 10(7) was obtained by temporal windowing of a self-phase-modulated chirped pulse before amplification and compression.

Experimental determination of fuel density‐radius product of inertial confinement fusion targets using secondary nuclear fusion reactions

The first demonstration of a fuel density‐radius product measurement using secondary nuclear fusion reactions is presented. This technique involves using neutrons and protons generated by DT {T(d,n)α} and D3He {3He(d,p)α} fusion reactions, respectively, in a pure deuterium fuel.

Study of indirectly driven implosion by x‐ray spectroscopic measurements

Fusion pellet implosion by laser‐generated x rays was investigated by means of time‐integrated spectroscopic measurements. Deuterium fuel was seeded with a small amount of Ar in order to determine the electron temperature and the density of the compressed fuel from, respectively, the emission intensity ratio and the broadening of the Lyβ (Ar17+1s‐3p) and Heβ (Ar16+1s2‐1s3p) lines. Comparison of the observed results with volume‐averaged temperatures and densities obtained from one‐dimensional (1‐D) fluid‐dynamic simulations showed large discrepancies at maximum compression. One possible explanation is that the fuel is stably compressed until the beginning of pusher deceleration by collision with a reflected shock wave from the pellet center, and that further compression during the deceleration phase is terminated in particular for heavy stagnation cases. Similar results were obtained for fusion output. Experimentally obtained neutron yields were close to those from the 1‐D simulations at the beginning of t...

Implosion hydrodynamics of fast ignition targets

The fast ignition (FI) concept requires the generation of a compact, dense, pure fuel mass accessible to an external ignition source. The current base line FI target is a shell fitted with a reentrant cone extending to near its center. Conventional direct- or indirect-drive collapses the shell near the tip of the cone and then an ultraintense laser pulse focused to the inside cone tip generates high-energy electrons to ignite the dense fuel. A theoretical and experimental investigation was undertaken of the collapse of such targets, validating modeling, and exploring the trade-offs available, in such an asymmetric geometry, to optimize compaction of the fuel and maintain the integrity of the cone. The collapse is complex. Away from the cone, the shell collapses much as does a conventional implosion, generating a hot, low-density inner core. But because of the open side, hot plasma exhausts out toward the tip of the cone. This hot plasma is advantageous for implosion diagnostics; it can provide protons for...

Fast plasma heating in a cone-attached geometry - towards fusion ignition

We have developed a PW (0.5 ps/500 J) laser system to demonstrate fast heating of imploded core plasmas using a hollow cone shell target. Significant enhancement of thermal neutron yield has been realized with PW-laser heating, confirming that the high heating efficiency is maintained as the short-pulse laser power is substantially increased to a value nearly equivalent to the ignition condition. It appears that the efficient heating is realized by the guiding of the PW laser pulse energy within the hollow cone and by self-organized relativistic electron transport. Based on the experimental results, we are developing a 10 kJ-PW laser system to study the fast heating physics of high-density plasmas at an ignition-equivalent temperature.

Foam materials for cryogenic targets of fast ignition realization experiment (FIREX)

Development of foam materials for cryogenically cooled fuel targets is described in this paper. The fabrication development was initiated as a part of the fast ignition realization experiment (FIREX) project at the ILE, Osaka University under a bilateral collaboration between Osaka University and National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS). For the first stage of FIREX (FIREX-I), a foam cryogenic target was designed in which low-density foam shells with a conical light guide will be fuelled through a narrow pipe and will be cooled down to the cryogenic temperature. Acrylic polymer, resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) resin, poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (PMP), and polystyrene-based crosslinking polymer have been investigated as supporting materials for cryogenic fuel. The properties of the material and the present status of the material development are summarized.

TWO-DIMENSIONAL SAMPLING-IMAGE X-RAY STREAK CAMERA FOR ULTRAFAST IMAGING OF INERTIAL CONFINEMENT FUSION PLASMAS

Ultrafast two-dimensional (2D) x-ray imaging with a temporal resolution better than 10 ps is of great importance in diagnosing the final stages of the imploded core plasmas of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets. The multi-imaging x-ray streak camera (MIXS) has been one of such imaging techniques. Recently, we have proposed another scheme, a 2D sampling-image x-ray streak camera method (2D-SIXS). In this scheme, a 2D image is sampled two dimensionally with a set of sampling points distributed regularly over the whole image on a cathode plate of an x-ray streak camera. The sampled image is streaked, and then, reconstructed to form the time-resolved 2D images like movie pictures. In this article, we report results of our proof-of-principle experiments of 2D-SIXS scheme performed at Gekko-XII glass laser system. A gold-coated spherical target was irradiated by three beams (0.53 μm) of Gekko-XII laser. Streaked data of 2D-SIXS were obtained and a series of time-resolved 2D x-ray images were successfully...

Fast ignition integrated experiments with Gekko and LFEX lasers

Based on the successful result of fast heating of a shell target with a cone for heating beam injection at Osaka University in 2002 using the PW laser (Kodama et al 2002 Nature 418 933), the FIREX-1 project was started in 2004. Its goal is to demonstrate fuel heating up to 5 keV using an upgraded heating laser beam. For this purpose, the LFEX laser, which can deliver an energy up to10 kJ in a 0.5–20 ps pulse at its full spec, has been constructed in addition to the Gekko-XII laser system at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University. It has been activated and became operational since 2009. Following the previous experiment with the PW laser, upgraded integrated experiments of fast ignition have been started using the LFEX laser with an energy up to 1 kJ in 2009 and 2 kJ in 2010 in a 1–5 ps 1.053 µm pulse. Experimental results including implosion of the shell target by Gekko-XII, heating of the imploded fuel core by LFEX laser injection, and increase of the neutron yield due to fast heating compared with no heating have been achieved. Results in the 2009 experiment indicated that the heating efficiency was 3–5%, much lower than the 20–30% expected from the previous 2002 data. It was attributed to the very hot electrons generated in a long scale length plasma in the cone preformed with a prepulse in the LFEX beam. The prepulse level was significantly reduced in the 2010 experiment to improve the heating efficiency. Also we have improved the plasma diagnostics significantly which enabled us to observe the plasma even in the hard x-ray harsh environment. In the 2010 experiment, we have observed neutron enhancement up to 3.5 × 107 with total heating energy of 300 J on the target, which is higher than the yield obtained in the 2009 experiment and the previous data in 2002. We found the estimated heating efficiency to be at a level of 10–20%. 5 keV heating is expected at the full output of the LFEX laser by controlling the heating efficiency.