Absolute instability modes due to rescattering of SRS in a large nonuniform plasma are studied theoretically and numerically. The backscattered light of convective SRS can be considered as a pump light with a finite bandwidth. The different frequency components of the backscattered light can be coupled to develop absolute stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and two plasmon decay (TPD) instability near their quarter-critical densities via rescattering process. The absolute SRS mode develops a Langmuir wave with a high phase velocity about c/ √ 3 with c the light speed in vacuum. Given that most electrons are at low velocities in the linear stage, the absolute SRS mode grows with much weak Landau damping. When the interaction evolves into the nonlinear regime, the Langmuir wave can heat abundant electrons up to a few hundred keV. Our theoretical model is validated by particle-in-cell simulations. The absolute instabilities may play a considerable role in the experiments of inertial confined fusion.
The spatiotemporal plasma-lens filter proposed here enhances the temporal contrast of the ultrashort pulse laser by combining plasma optics and spatial filtering. Experimentally, the spatiotemporal plasma-lens filter has improved the temporal contrast by 2 orders of magnitude with 80% laser transmission efficiency under a 1 Hz repetitive laser operation. Not only were the pre-pulse and the pedestal cleaned out, but also the rising edge of the main pulse was sharpened.
Corona homogeneity and spectra of scattered light and hot electrons produced by laser-plasma instabilities inside laser-produced plastic, aluminum, and gold plasmas were investigated with and without the use of continuous phase plate (CPP) to the laser beam. Improvement of the corona homogeneity was observed for all three materials after applying CPP, while the inhibition of the intensity of backward-scattered light and the amount of emitted hot electrons was not always synchronous for different materials, which is interpreted as a result of the changes in thresholds of the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and the two-plasmon decay (TPD) instability before and after the application of CPP. By comparing the changes of SRS scattered light intensity with the amount of hot electrons in different kinetic energy ranges for all three target materials in our experiments, we conclude that SRS is more responsible for the diagnosed hot electrons between 50-150 keV, and those above 150 keV should be generated by TPD, which could be explained by the difference in phase velocity of electron plasma waves between SRS and TPD calculated from measured and simulated parameters of corona and laser-plasma instabilities.
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