Single hot spot experiments offer several unique opportunities for developing a quantitative understanding of laser-plasma instabilities. These include the ability to perform direct numerical simulations of the experiment due to the finite interaction volume, isolation of instabilities due to the nearly ideal laser intensity distribution, and observation of fine structure due to the homogeneous plasma initial conditions. Experiments performed at Trident in the single hot spot regime have focused on the following issues. First, the intensity scaling of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) for classically large damping regimes (kλD=0.35) was examined, and compared to classical SRS theory. SRS onset was observed at intensities much lower than expected (2×1015 W/cm2), from which nonclassical damping is inferred. Second, Thomson scattering was used to probe plasma waves driven by SRS, and structure was observed in the scattered spectra consistent with multiple steps of the Langmuir decay instability. Finally, scattering from a plasma wave was observed whose frequency and phase velocity are between an ion acoustic wave and an electron plasma wave. The presence of this wave cannot be explained by linear Landau theory, and it is shown to be consistent with a BGK-type mode due to electron trapping.

We have demonstrated efficient coupling of 0.35 p, m laser light for radiation production in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) cavity targets. Temperatures of 270 eV are measured in cavities used for implosions and 300 eV in smaller cavities, significantly extending the temperature range attained in the laboratory to those required for high-gain indirect drive ICF. High-contrast, shaped drive pulses required for implosion experiments have also been demonstrated for the first time. Low levels of scattered light and fast electrons are observed, indicating that plasma instability production is not significant.PACS numbers: 52.50.Jm, 52.40.Nk, 52.70.La Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) uses high powered laser or particle beams to compress and heat capsules containing fusion fuel with the goal of producing thermonuclear energy [1,2]. One proposed method for ICF is x-ray drive where high powered beams heat high-Z cavities, or Hohlraums, converting the driver energy to x rays which implode the capsule [3]. Present indirect drive target designs predict ignition, and gain can be attained with a 1-2 MJ laser for radiation drive temperatures on the order of 300 eV [4]. In this Letter we report experiments using the Nova laser that demonstrate efficient cavity heating with 0.35 p, m light to the temperatures required for these ignition target designs. Radiation temperatures in excess of 270 eV have been obtained in cavities used for implosions [5], while 300 eV temperatures have been obtained in smaller cavities. These radiation cavities are the highest thermal sources measured in the laboratory. The temperature scaling is consistent with a simple power balance model successfully used to model previous experiments at lower temperatures [6,7], extending its proven range of validity. We have demonstrated that shaped radiation drive pulses required to control shock preheat can easily be attained by varying the incident laser power. Laserplasma instabilities [8] that could reduce coupling efficiency and produce superthermal electrons appear not to be significant. Fast electrons are low, typically less than a few percent, indicating superthermal electron preheat is small. In addition to high density implosion experiments [9,10], these cavities have been used for a variety of radiation heating experiments including hydrodynamic instability studies of radiatively accelerated material both in planar [11,12] and convergent systems [13] and opacity experiments of radiatively heated material [14].

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Thomson scattering is used to measure Langmuir waves (LW) driven by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in a diffraction limited laser focal spot. For SRS at wave numbers klambda(D) less similar 0.29, where k is the LW number and lambda(D) is the Debye length, multiple waves are detected and are attributed to the Langmuir decay instability (LDI) driven by the primary LW. At klambda(D) greater similar 0.29, a single wave, frequency-broadened spectrum is observed. The transition from the fluid to the kinetic regime is qualitatively consistent with particle-in-cell simulations and crossing of the LDI amplitude threshold above that for LW self-focusing.

The backward stimulated Raman scattering (BSRS) of a laser from electron beam acoustic modes (BAM) in the presence of self-consistent non-Maxwellian velocity distributions is examined by linear theory and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in one and two dimensions (1D and 2D). The BAM evolve from Langmuir waves (LW) as electron trapping modifies the distribution to a non-Maxwellian form that exhibits a beam component. Linear dispersion relations using the nonlinearly modified distribution from simulations are solved for the electrostatic modes involved in the parametric coupling. Results from linear analysis agree well with electrostatic spectra from simulations. It is shown that the intersection of the Stokes root with BAM (instead of LW) determines the matching conditions for BSRS at a nonlinear stage. As the frequency of the unstable Stokes mode decreases with increasing wave number, the damping rate and the phase velocity of BAM decreases with the phase velocity of the Stokes mode, providing a self-consistently evolving plasma linear response that favors continuation of the nonlinear frequency shift. Coincident with the emergence of BAM is a rapid increase in BSRS reflectivity. The details of the wave-particle interaction region in the electron velocity distribution determine the growth/damping rate of these electrostatic modes and the nonlinear frequency shift; in modeling this behavior, the use of sufficiently large numbers of particles in the simulations is crucial. Both the reflectivity scaling with laser intensity and the spectral features from simulations are discussed and are consistent with recent Trident experiments.

As Langmuir waves (LWs) are driven to large amplitude in plasma, they are affected by nonlinear mechanisms. A global understanding, based on simulations and experiments, has emerged that identifies various nonlinear regimes depending on the dimensionless parameter kλD, where k is the Langmuir wave number and λD is the electron Debye length. The nonlinear phenomena arise due to wave-wave and wave-particle coupling mechanisms, and this basic separation between fluid-like nonlinearities and kinetic nonlinearities depends on the degree to which electron and ion Landau damping, as well as electron trapping, play a role. Previous ionospheric heating experiments [Cheung et al. Phys. Plasmas 8, 802 (2001)] identified cavitation/collapse and Langmuir decay instability (LDI), predominantly wave-wave mechanisms, to be the principal nonlinear effects for driven LWs with kλD<0.1, in agreement with fluid simulations [DuBois et al. Phys. Plasmas 8, 791 (2001)]. In the present research, collective Thomson scattering measurements of LWs driven by stimulated Raman scattering in laser-plasma experiments are used to study both wave-wave and wave-particle nonlinearities [Kline et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 175003 (2005)]. For kλD<0.29, multiple LWs are detected and are attributed to LDI, a wave-wave nonlinear regime. For kλD>0.29, a single-wave, frequency-broadened spectrum is observed associated with electron trapping, a wave-particle nonlinear regime. The transition from wave-wave to wave-particle nonlinear behavior is qualitatively consistent with particle-in-cell simulations and with the crossing of the LDI threshold above that for LW self-focusing. The fact that LDI is observed in both ionospheric and laser-plasma experiments for similar values of kλD, though vastly differing in plasma conditions and scales, and that simulations predict the various observed nonlinear regimes over a large range of kλD, supports our global view of LW nonlinear behavior.

Nonlinear physics governing the kinetic behavior of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in multi-speckled laser beams has been identified in the trapping regime over a wide range of kλD values (here k is the wave number of the electron plasma waves and λD is the Debye length) in homogeneous and inhomogeneous plasmas. Hot electrons from intense speckles, both forward and side-loss hot electrons produced during SRS daughter electron plasma wave bowing and filamentation, seed and enhance the growth of SRS in neighboring speckles by reducing Landau damping. Trapping-enhanced speckle interaction through transport of hot electrons, backscatter, and sidescatter SRS light waves enable the system of speckles to self-organize and exhibit coherent, sub-ps SRS bursts with more than 100% instantaneous reflectivity, resulting in an SRS transverse coherence width much larger than a speckle width and a SRS spectrum that peaks outside the incident laser cone. SRS reflectivity is found to saturate above a threshold laser intensity at a level of reflectivity that depends on kλD: higher kλD leads to lower SRS and the reflectivity scales as ∼(kλD)−4. As kλD and Landau damping increase, speckle interaction via sidescattered light and side-loss hot electrons decreases and the occurrence of self-organized events becomes infrequent, leading to the reduction of time-averaged SRS reflectivity. It is found that the inclusion of a moderately strong magnetic field in the laser direction can effectively control SRS by suppressing transverse speckle interaction via hot electron transport.

for an Invited Paper for the DPP15 Meeting of the American Physical Society Two Decades of Progress in Understanding and Control of Laser Plasma Instabilities in Indirect Drive Inertial Fusion 1 DAVID S. MONTGOMERY, Los Alamos National LaboratoryOur understanding of laser-plasma interaction (LPI) physics has improved dramatically over the past two decades through advancements in experimental techniques, diagnostics, and theoretical and modeling approaches. We have progressed from single-beam experiments -ns pulses with ∼kJ energy incident on hundred-micron-scale target plasmas with ∼keV electron temperatures -to ones involving nearly 2 MJ energy in 192 beams onto multi-mm-scale plasmas with temperatures ∼4 keV. At the same time, we have also been able to use smaller-scale laser facilities to substantially improve our understanding of LPI physics and evaluate novel approaches to the their control. The need to interpret and understand these detailed LPI experimental results has inspired an evolution of theoretical models, from 1D fluids with linear plasma wave responses to individual beams via a three-wave interaction, to today's fully nonlinear, 2D and 3D fluid and kinetic simulations of systems whose LPI dynamics are dominated by wave-wave and wave-particle nonlinearity. These efforts have led to a change in paradigm for LPI research, ushering in an era of engineering LPI to accomplish specific objectives, from tuning capsule implosion symmetry to fixing nonlinear saturation of LPI processes at acceptable levels to enable the exploration of high energy density physics in novel plasma regimes. This talk will review the progress in the field from the vantage of the foundational LPI experimental results. The pedagogical framework of the simplest models of LPI will be employed, but attention will also be paid to settings where more sophisticated models are needed to understand the observations. Prospects for the application of our improved understanding for inertial fusion (both indirect-and direct-drive) and other applications will also be discussed.