Experimental evidence of early-time saturation of the ion-Weibel instability in counterstreaming plasmas of CH, Al, and Cu.

The collisionless ion-Weibel instability is a leading candidate mechanism for the formation of collisionless shocks in many astrophysical systems, where the typical distance between particle collisions is much larger than the system size. Multiple laboratory experiments aimed at studying this process utilize laser-driven (I≳10^{15} W/cm^{2}), counterstreaming plasma flows (V≲2000 km/s) to create conditions unstable to Weibel-filamentation and growth. This technique intrinsically produces temporally varying plasma conditions at the midplane of the interaction where Weibel-driven B fields are generated and studied. Experiments discussed herein demonstrate robust formation of Weibel-driven B fields under multiple plasma conditions using CH, Al, and Cu plasmas. Linear theory based on benchmarked radiation-hydrodynamic FLASH calculations is compared with Fourier analyses of proton images taken ∼5-6 linear growth times into the evolution. The new analyses presented here indicate that the low-density, high-velocity plasma-conditions present during the first linear-growth time (∼300-500 ps) sets the spectral characteristics of Weibel filaments during the entire evolution. It is shown that the dominant wavelength (∼300µm) at saturation persists well into the nonlinear phase, consistent with theory under these experimental conditions. However, estimates of B-field strength, while difficult to determine accurately due to the path-integrated nature of proton imaging, are shown to be in the ∼10-30 T range, an order of magnitude above the expected saturation limit in homogenous plamas but consistent with enhanced B fields in the midplane due to temporally varying plasma conditions in experiments.

Fast electron transport dynamics and energy deposition in magnetized, imploded cylindrical plasma.

Inertial confinement fusion approaches involve the creation of high-energy-density states through compression. High gain scenarios may be enabled by the beneficial heating from fast electrons produced with an intense laser and by energy containment with a high-strength magnetic field. Here, we report experimental measurements from a configuration integrating a magnetized, imploded cylindrical plasma and intense laser-driven electrons as well as multi-stage simulations that show fast electrons transport pathways at different times during the implosion and quantify their energy deposition contribution. The experiment consisted of a CH foam cylinder, inside an external coaxial magnetic field of 5 T, that was imploded using 36 OMEGA laser beams. Two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic modelling predicts the CH density reaches [Formula: see text], the temperature reaches 920 eV and the external B-field is amplified at maximum compression to 580 T. At pre-determined times during the compression, the intense OMEGA EP laser irradiated one end of the cylinder to accelerate relativistic electrons into the dense imploded plasma providing additional heating. The relativistic electron beam generation was simulated using a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) code. Finally, three-dimensional hybrid-PIC simulations calculated the electron propagation and energy deposition inside the target and revealed the roles the compressed and self-generated B-fields play in transport. During a time window before the maximum compression time, the self-generated B-field on the compression front confines the injected electrons inside the target, increasing the temperature through Joule heating. For a stronger B-field seed of 20 T, the electrons are predicted to be guided into the compressed target and provide additional collisional heating. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)'.

Ion acceleration from microstructured targets irradiated by high-intensity picosecond laser pulses.

Structures on the front surface of thin foil targets for laser-driven ion acceleration have been proposed to increase the ion source maximum energy and conversion efficiency. While structures have been shown to significantly boost the proton acceleration from pulses of moderate-energy fluence, their performance on tightly focused and high-energy lasers remains unclear. Here, we report the results of laser-driven three-dimensional (3D)-printed microtube targets, focusing on their efficacy for ion acceleration. Using the high-contrast (∼10^{12}) PHELIX laser (150J, 10^{21}W/cm^{2}), we studied the acceleration of ions from 1-µm-thick foils covered with micropillars or microtubes, which we compared with flat foils. The front-surface structures significantly increased the conversion efficiency from laser to light ions, with up to a factor of 5 higher proton number with respect to a flat target, albeit without an increase of the cutoff energy. An optimum diameter was found for the microtube targets. Our findings are supported by a systematic particle-in-cell modeling investigation of ion acceleration using 2D simulations with various structure dimensions. Simulations reproduce the experimental data with good agreement, including the observation of the optimum tube diameter, and reveal that the laser is shuttered by the plasma filling the tubes, explaining why the ion cutoff energy was not increased in this regime.