Pushing the limits of plasma length in inertial-fusion laser-plasma interaction experiments.
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.
Froula
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DH
L-399, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551, USA. froula1@llnl.gov
Divol
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L
London
R A
RA
Michel
P
P
Berger
R L
RL
Meezan
N B
NB
Neumayer
P
P
Ross
J S
JS
Wallace
R
R
Glenzer
S H
SH