title: Pushing the limits of plasma length in inertial-fusion laser-plasma interaction experiments.
abstract: We demonstrate laser beam propagation and low backscatter in laser produced hohlraum plasmas of ignition plasma length. At intensities I < 5 x 10(14) W cm(-2) greater than 80% of the energy in a blue (3 omega, 351 nm) laser is transmitted through a L=5-mm long, high-temperature (Te = 2.5 keV), high-density (ne = 5 x 10(20) cm(-3)) plasma. These experiments show that the backscatter scales exponentially with plasma length which is consistent with linear theory. The backscatter calculated by a new steady state 3D laser-plasma interaction code developed for large ignition plasmas is in good agreement with the measurements.
authors.affiliation: L-399, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551, USA. froula1@llnl.gov
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Froula
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Divol
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: London
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: N B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Meezan
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Neumayer
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Glenzer