Pump depletion and hot-electron generation in long-density-scale-length plasma with shock-ignition high-intensity laser

J. Li, S. Zhang, C. M. Krauland, H. Wen, F. N. Beg, C. Ren, and M. S. Wei

Phys. Rev. E 101, 033206 – Published 18 March 2020

Abstract

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations for laser plasma interaction with laser intensity of $10^{16} W / {cm}^{2}$ , plasma density range of $0.01 - 0.28 n_{c}$ , and scale length of $230 - 330 μ m$ showed significant pump depletion of the laser energy due to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in the low-density region ( $n_{e} = 0.01 - 0.2 n_{c}$ ). The simulations identified hot electrons generated by SRS in the low-density region with moderate energy and by two-plasmon-decay near $n_{e} = 0.25 n_{c}$ with higher energy. The overall hot electron temperature (46 keV) and conversion efficiency (3%) were consistent with the experiment's measurements. The simulations also showed artificially reducing SBS would lead to stronger SRS and a softer hot-electron spectrum.

Received 10 January 2019
Revised 16 September 2019
Accepted 9 January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.101.033206

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

High-energy-density plasmas Laser-plasma interactions Particle acceleration in plasmas Plasma instabilities Wave-wave, wave-particle interactions

Plasma PhysicsAccelerators & Beams

Authors & Affiliations

J. Li¹, S. Zhang ¹, C. M. Krauland², H. Wen³, F. N. Beg ¹, C. Ren^4,5,*, and M. S. Wei ^2,†

¹Center for Energy Research, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
²Inertial Fusion Technology, General Atomics, San Diego, California 92121, USA
³Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
⁴Department of Mechanical Engineering and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA

^*chuang.ren@rochester.edu
^†Current address: Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623; mingsheng.wei@rochester.edu

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Vol. 101, Iss. 3 — March 2020

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