High Energy Density Physics With Intense Particle and Laser Beams

Abstract

Interaction of intense ion radiation with matter has numerous applications in different fields of science, ranging from basic research of plasma properties to application in energy science. Energy loss processes of heavy ions in plasma and cold matter are important to understand the generation of high energy density states in matter. The hot dense plasma of an inertial fusion target is just one example. Of special interest are phase transitions, when irradiated matter passes through the parameter regime of warm dense matter, which is located in the phase diagram at high density but relatively low temperature. Typical parameters are in the pressure range of kbar to Mbar and temperatures ranging into the few eV regime. We present an overview on recent results and developments of beam plasma, and beam matter interaction processes studied with heavy ion beams from the GSI accelerator facilities, which consist of an rf-accelerator (UNILAC: Universal Linear Accelerator), a heavy ion synchrotron (SIS 18) and an experimental storage ring (ESR). The synchrotron SIS18 currently delivers an intense uranium beam that deposits about 1 kJ/g specific energy in solid matter. Using this beam, high energy density states close to the critical point of lead, have been reached and solid lead foils have been heated to a measured brightness temperature on the order of 5000 K.

A Review of Wave Packet Molecular Dynamics

“…A large amount of energy is delivered to a target in a short period of time. Several different methods for delivering this energy have been developed, including exploding wire [1,2,3], laser foil [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19], inertial confinement fusion [20,21], ion beam [22,23,24,25,26,27], Z machine [28,29,30,31], free electron laser [32,33,34,35], and laser induced shock [36,37,38,39,40,41] experiments. Understanding energy exchange processes is crucial to the proper interpretation of these experiments.…”

A platform for highly charged ions: surface–foil–gas–plasma interaction at the IMP

“…It should be mentioned here that the cooling storage ring at IMP has very good working parameters, especially for the scaling study of heavy ion-driven fusion (HIF) and HEDP [29][30][31]. The investigation of ion-plasma interaction could provide a great deal of important information for future work on HIF and HEDP at IMP.…”

Multiphoton excitation and harmonic generation from the quantum electrodynamic vacuum

“…The interaction of such powerful lasers with matter and the quantum electrodynamic (QED) vacuum will have a strictly multiphoton character allowing the manifestation of nonlinear phenomena of a wide spectrum [12], and consequently, opening up a new research field with high-energy and multiphoton transitions. In particular, one can consider particle-antiparticle pair creation from the vacuum [13][14][15][16], at the laser-plasma interaction [17][18][19][20][21] and coherent generation of harmonics from the QED vacuum [22,23]. With the x-ray lasers, one may also benefit from the high photon energies involved in the laser-matter interaction process [24][25][26].…”