Zhang Bao-Han

Measurement of the KLL Dielectronic Recombination Resonances in He-like to C-like Kr Ions

The KLL dielectronic recombination processes of highly charged He-like to C-like Kr ions have been studied experimentally. The measurement was performed on the newly developed Shanghai electron beam ion trap (Shanghai-EBIT) facility. Characteristic x-rays from both dielectronic recombination and radiative recombination are detected as the electron beam energy is scanned through the resonances. The KLL resonant strengths obtained are 5.41 × 10−19, 4.33 × 10−19, 3.59 × 10−19, 2.05 × 10−19 and 0.98 × 10−19 cm2 eV for He-like to C-like Kr ions, respectively.

Deuterium Clusters Fusion Induced by the Intense Femtosecond Laser Pulse

Neutrons (2.45 MeV) from deuterium cluster fusion induced by the intense femtosecond (30 fs) laser pulse are experimentally demonstrated. The average neutron yield 103 per shot is obtained. It is found that the yield slightly increases with the increasing laser spot size. No neutron can be observed when the laser intensity I < 4.3×1015 W/cm2.

PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT OF THE THOMSON SCATTERING X-RAY SOURCE AT TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY

The X-ray source based on Thomson scattering of ultrashort laser pulse with a relativistic electron beam is a means of generating a tunable, narrow bandwidth and ultrashort pulse of hard X-rays. Such a sub-picosecond hard X-ray source is proposed at Tsinghua University, and a preliminary experiment with a 16 MeV Backward Traveling electron linac and a 1.5 J, 6 ns Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is carried out first. A 6 ns pulse X-ray with a peak energy of 4.6 keV and an intensity of 1.7×104 per pulse is generated successfully in the experiment. The experimental setup, result and discussion are reported in this paper.

Numerical simulation for all-optical Thomson scattering X-ray source

Energy spectra, angular distributions, and temporal profiles of the photons produced by an all-optical Thomson scattering X-ray source are explored through numerical simulations based on the parameters of the SILEX-I laser system (800 nm, 30 fs, 300 TW) and the previous wakefield acceleration experimental results. The simulation results show that X-ray pulses with a duration of 30 fs and an emission angle of 50 mrad can be produced from such a source. Using the optimized electron parameters, X-ray pulses with better directivity and narrower energy spectra can be obtained. Besides the electron parameters, the laser parameters such as the wavelength, pulse duration, and spot size also affect the X-ray yield, the angular distribution, and the maximum photon energy, except the X-ray pulse duration which is slightly changed for the case of ultrafast laser—electron interaction.

Experiments and analysis of gold disk targets irradiated by smoothing beams of Xingguang II facilities with 350 nm wavelength

Gold disk targets were irradiated using focusing and beam smoothing methods on Xingguang (XG-II) laser facilities with 350 nm wavelength, 0.6 ns pulse width and 20–80 Joules energies. Laser absorption, light scattering and X-ray conversion were experimentally investigated. The experimental results showed that laser absorption and scattered light were about 90% and 10%, respectively, under focusing irradiation, but the laser absorption increased 5%–10% and the scattered light about 1% under the condition of beam smoothing. Compared with the case of focusing irradiation, the laser absorption was effectively improved and the scattered light remarkably dropped under uniform irradiation; then due to the decrease in laser intensity, X-ray conversion increased. This is highly advantageous to the inertial confinement fusion. However, X-ray conversion mechanism basically did not change and X-ray conversion efficiency under beam smoothing and focusing irradiation was basically the same.

Progress and plans of X-ray temporal and spatial diagnosis technology of Shenguang facilities

In the field of indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion, temporal and spatial diagnosis of X-ray is very important to the imploded process researches and the simulate procedure verification. According to the temporal, spatial and spectral characteristics of X-ray radiation, many X-ray imaging diagnosis devices were successfully developed. Along with the development of ICF research, especially the Shenguang III facility establishment, our X-ray imaging diagnosis capability has been increasingly powerful. Some of the novel diagnosis equipment even have more excellent characteristics than that kind of diagnosis equipment abroad.

Recent progress of hohlraum physics experiments in indirect-driven ICF in China

In recent years, hohlraum experiments have been performed extensively on Shenguang series laser facilities in the context of laser indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion. Multiple aspects about the hohlraumenergetics, drive symmetry and plasma condition are studied by a variety of methods resolving different photon ranges and multiple viewing areas. To improve the experimental uncertainty, several diagnostics are optimized and calibrated, also the power balance and pointing accuracy of laser beams are evaluated and improved. These works lead a rapid progress on hohlraum experimental capabilities and a series of successful experimental campaigns. In order to further optimize the hohlraum performance, other hohlraum geometry (the spherical hohlram with six LEHs and the cylindrical hohlraum with six LEHs) and hohlraum wall material (depleted Uranium and foam Au) are explored as well. Hohlraum experiments and modeling on Shenguang series laser facilities demonstrated quantitative understanding of the laser conversion, X-ray ablation and plasma motion in different regions.

Laser plasma instability in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion

In indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the incident laser beam could excite laser plasma instabilities (LPI) such as stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and two plasmon decay (TPD) besides gently heat the hohlraum through collisional absorption. These instabilities would largely reduce the X-ray conversion and degrade the drive symmetry of the radiation environment. In addition, when the amplitude of parametric instability increases to a certain level, there would be interplay between different instabilities, which makes LPI complicated and unpredictable. Therefore, LPI has become one of the major challenge in achieving ignition. LPI research during recent few years made great strides in identifying, understanding, and controlling instabilities in the context of laser fusion. This paper reviews the progress in this important field according to laser (L), plasma (P), and instability (I). Prospects for the application of our improved understanding for indirect drive ICF and some exciting research opportunities are also discussed.

An improved deconvolution method for X-ray coded imaging in inertial confinement fusion

In inertial confinement fusion (ICF), X-ray coded imaging is considered as the most potential means to diagnose the compressed core. The traditional Richardson—Lucy (RL) method has a strong ability to deblur the image where the noise follows the Poisson distribution. However, it always suffers from over-fitting and noise amplification, especially when the signal-to-noise ratio of image is relatively low. In this paper, we propose an improved deconvolution method for X-ray coded imaging. We model the image data as a set of independent Gaussian distributions and derive the iterative solution with a maximum-likelihood scheme. The experimental results on X-ray coded imaging data demonstrate that this method is superior to the RL method in terms of anti-overfitting and noise suppression.

Characterization of relativistic electrons generated by a cone guiding laser pulse

We demonstrated the interaction of a gold cone target with a femto second (fs) laser pulse above the relativistic intensity of 1.37 × 1018 μm 2W/cm2. Relativistic electrons with energy above 2 MeV were observed. A 25%-40% increase of the electron temperature is achieved compared to the case when a plane gold target is used. The electron temperature increase results from the guiding of the laser beam at the tip and the intense quasistatic magnetic field in the cone geometry. The behavior of the relativistic electrons is verified in our 2D-PIC simulations.