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The suppression of ablation rate on a titanium surface irradiated by a double-pulse beam with a two-color laser was experimentally investigated with time delays of Δt = 0–700 ps. The double pulse beam consists of 800 nm with 150 fs pulse and 400 nm with >150 fs pulse. The fundamental-pulse fluence F800 is kept below the ablation threshold (F800th = 0.108 J/cm2), while the second harmonic pulse fluence F400 is above the ablation threshold (F400th = 0.090 J/cm2). The ablation rate of titanium is clearly suppressed to 2.39 nm per pair with a time delay of Δt = 200 ps. This ablation rate corresponds to one-third of the 7.3 nm/pulse for only the first pulse beam, but it corresponds to about one-half of the one-color double-pulse irradiation. Ablation suppression with a two-color double-pulse beam is more pronounced compared to that for a one-color double pulse beam, which may be due to the shorter optical penetration length of the first pulse.

The injection and engagement of pellets using laser beam irradiation is one of the key technologies to realize a laser-driven inertial fusion energy (IFE) reactor. We irradiated ultra-intense laser...

We conducted fast heating of a core plasma produced by counter-illumination of two beam bundles of implosion lasers for two incident directions of the heating laser. For the axial heating configuration, wherein the heating laser was incident along the coaxial direction of the implosion lasers, the size and density of the counter-imploded core plasma were estimated. The incident timing of the heating laser was determined. Although the heating laser was incident during the stagnation of the core plasma, there were no considerable increases in the intensity of X-rays with energies beyond 1 keV and the yield of the thermonuclear fusion neutrons. Effective core heating did not occur due to the interaction of the heating laser with the low-density ablated plasma far from the core. On the other hand, for the transverse heating configuration, wherein the heating laser was incident from the transverse direction of the implosion laser axis, optimization of the incident timing of the heating laser was not achieved. However, two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulation revealed that a heating laser can directly interact with a core plasma and effective heating is expected. In our scheme, transverse heating configuration appears to be significant.

The authors have investigated the uniformity of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) generated on titanium surfaces irradiated with a two-color double-pulse cross-polarized beam with a time delay of Δt = 0–200 ps. The double-pulse beam consisted of 800 nm pulses with a duration of 150 fs and 400 nm pulses with a duration of >150 fs. The fundamental-pulse fluence F800 and the second-harmonic pulse fluence F400 were set to be near the corresponding ablation thresholds of F800th = 0.108 J/cm2 and F400th = 0.090 J/cm2, respectively. The authors found that uniform LIPSSs could be produced on titanium surfaces using laser fluences of 1.5F400th + 0.9F800th and a delay of Δt = 0–2 ps. The periodicity and direction of the LIPSSs were characterized by the wavelength and electric field of the fundamental (800 nm) pulse. The results suggest that the longer-wavelength pulse influences surface plasma wave generation and improves uniformity by the second harmonic pulse even though laser plasma is produced on the surface.

We have demonstrated the suppression of ablation rate on a silicon surface irradiated by a double-pulse beam with two color laser in time delays of Δt = -900 - 900 ps. The double pulse beam consists of 810nm with 40fs pulse and 405nm with > 40fs pulse. The fundamental-pulse fluence F810 is kept below ablation threshold (Fth, 810nm = 0.190 J/cm2 ) while the second harmonic pulse fluence F405 are kept above the ablation threshold (Fth, 405nm = 0.050 J/cm2 ). We find that ablation rate of silicon is drastically decreased at delay times of 600ps.

In implosion experiments of a cone-guided target using Gekko XII laser, the lasers on the cone side are not irradiated to avoid the irradiation of the cone. In such condition, the implosion process is done highly asymmetrically. Thus we evaluated the effects of the asymmetric implosion on the compression ratio of the fuel in Gekko XII irradiation orientation by three-dimensional hydro simulations. In this paper, we discuss the degradation of the compression ratio by asymmetric implosion and show that the compression ratio can be enhanced by adjusting the laser intensity between each beam to reduce the asymmetry of the implosion.

An ultra-intense short pulse laser induces a shock wave in material. The pressure of shock compression is stronger than a few tens GPa. To characterize shock waves, time-resolved velocity measurement in nano- or pico-second time scale is needed. Frequency domain interferometer and chirped pulse laser provide single-shot time-resolved measurement. We have developed a laser-driven shock compression system and frequency domain interferometer with CPA laser. In this paper, we show the principle of velocity measurement using a frequency domain interferometer and a chirped pulse laser. Next, we numerically calculated spectral interferograms and show the time-resolved velocity measurement can be done from the phase analysis of spectral interferograms. Moreover we conduct the laser driven shock generation and shock velocity measurement. From the spectral fringes, we analyze the velocities of the sample and shockwaves.

The formation of periodic grating structures has been demonstrated on a titanium surface irradiated by a double-pulse beam with a time delay of 160 fs. The first-pulse fluence FPP was varied and always kept below the threshold FTH = 60 mJ/cm 2 for forming periodic grating structures on Ti and the delayed pulse fluence FLP was kept above FTH. The grating structure interspaces were 0.5λL to 0.85λL and decreased with FPP for all values of FLP. This tendency suggests that variation in surface plasma density, which is associated with the fluence of the first pulse, led to variation of the grating interspaces. We found that the interspaces produced by double-pulse irradiation agreed relatively well with those produced by single-pulse irradiation and those predicted by a parametric decay model. To visualize the surface plasma wave induced by the femtosecond laser, two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation was conducted for a preformed plasma on a metal. The simulation results suggest that the preformed plasma density led to the variation in the grating interspaces.

In laser-driven inertial fusion energy reactors, injected fuel pellets are continuously delivered into the reaction chamber and irradiated by laser beams injected at a frequency of tens of hertz. Thus far, a spherical shell pellet has been confirmed as the most conventional target design to achieve high-energy-density state thorough an implosion process that is required for fusion burn. To demonstrate repetitive fuel implosion with a 1 Hz joule-class laser system, a testbed of a shell injection system delivering a spherical shell (500 m diameter and 7 m thickness) was developed. The developed testbed demonstrated that (i) repetitive implosion (maximum frequency: 0.5 Hz) of shell injection was possible for more than ten shells at a shell speed of 191 mm s−1, and (ii) the distribution of the injected shell after 18 cm free-fall was within a circular region, 6.4 mm in diameter. The estimated laser-hit-ratio to the pellet was on the order of 10%.

In fast ignition, optimization of laser profile for core heating is one approach to ignite the core. However, the profile is not so optimized and its effects on fast electron characteristics are not fully clarified yet. The laser profile is optimized under the condition of same laser energy because laser energy is restricted in experiments. Therefore, we investigate effects of laser profile on fast electron generation under the condition of same laser energy. In this paper, each effect of laser temporal and spatial profile is estimated independently using two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations. We conclude that lower intensity laser suitable for fast ignition under the limit of simulated parameters when energy of laser is same because efficient core-heating electrons are much generated and divergence angle is smaller in low-intensity case compared to high-intensity case.

The FIREX-1 project, the goal of which is to demonstrate fuel heating up to 5 keV by fast ignition scheme, has been carried out since 2003 including construction and tuning of LFEX laser and integrated experiments. Implosion and heating experiment of Fast Ignition targets have been performed since 2009 with Gekko-XII and LFEX lasers. A deuterated polystyrene shell target was imploded with the 0.53- μm Gekko-XII, and the 1.053- μm beam of the LFEX laser was injected through a gold cone attached to the shell to generate hot electrons to heat the imploded fuel plasma. Pulse contrast ratio of the LFEX beam was significantly improved. Also a variety of plasma diagnostic instruments were developed to be compatible with harsh environment of intense hard x-rays (γ rays) and electromagnetic pulses due to the intense LFEX beam on the target. Large background signals around the DD neutron signal in time-of-flight record of neutron detector were found to consist of neutrons via (γ,n) reactions and scattered gamma rays. Enhanced neutron yield was confirmed by carefully eliminating such backgrounds. Neutron enhancement up to 3.5 × 107 was observed. Heating efficiency was estimated to be 10-20% assuming a uniform temperature rise model. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013.

The formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) is demonstrated on a titanium surface irradiated by a double-pulse beam cross-polarized at time delays from Δτ = 0–1 ps. The first-pulse fluence F 1 and the delayed pulse fluence F 2 are kept below the formation threshold F TH = 65 mJ/cm2 of the periodic grating structure on Ti. We find that periodic grating structures with LIPSS orientation of 45° relative to both polarizations are produced at delay times of 0 and 120 fs. To control LIPSS orientation, a double-pulse beam with a time delay of 0 fs is demonstrated in which a beam composed of a first pulse maintaining constant fluence of F 1 = 70 mJ/cm2 and a delayed pulse varying from F 2 = 0–70 mJ/cm2. The LIPSS orientations are in a range of 0°–45° and decrease as the normalized fluence F 2/F 1 decreases. We find that the orientation of LIPSS produced by double-pulse irradiations is in relatively good agreement with the direction obtained by the vector sum of laser fields $$E_{1}^{4}$$ and $$E_{2}^{4}$$ . This tendency suggests that a multi-photon process at the metal surface might characterize the LIPSS orientation.

The two-dimensional particle in cell code has been used to demonstrated the formation mechanism for the periodic nanograting structure using 500-fs pulses of an ultra-fast laser with wavelength 800 nm, incidence angle 0°, linearly-polarized, and intensity 1018 W/cm2 µm2 in hydrogen plasma. The periodic nanograting structure has been clearly self-organized at the boundary between the preformed plasma and the dense plasma at t = 250 fs. By time evolution of the magnetic field and the current density in the dense plasma, it has been found that the Weibel instability plays a significant role to form the periodic nanograting structure.

To enhance the core heating efficiency in fast ignition laser fusion, the concept of relativistic electron beam guiding by external magnetic fields was evaluated by integrated simulations for FIREX class targets. For the cone-attached shell target case, the core heating performance is deteriorated by applying magnetic fields since the core is considerably deformed and the most of the fast electrons are reflected due to the magnetic mirror formed through the implosion. On the other hand, in the case of cone-attached solid ball target, the implosion is more stable under the kilo-tesla-class magnetic field. In addition, feasible magnetic field configuration is formed through the implosion. As the results, the core heating efficiency becomes double by magnetic guiding. The dependence of core heating properties on the heating pulse shot timing was also investigated for the solid ball target., Comment: 9pages, 12 figures, submitted to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

Implosion and heating experiments at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University on Fast Ignition (FI) targets for the FIREX-1 project have been performed with Gekko-XII laser for implosions and LFEX laser for heating. We tried to reduce the prepulse level in the LFEX laser system and have improved the plasma diagnostics to observe the plasma in the harsh hard X-ray environment. A plastic (CD) shell target, 7-μm thick and 500 μm in diameter with a hollow gold cone was used in this experiment to guide the short-pulse laser at the time of the maximum compression. The shell target was imploded with 9 or 12 beams of Gekko-XII laser (527 nm) with energy of 300 J/beam in a 1.5 ns pulse. Two of the four LFEX laser (1053 nm) beams were injected into the inside bottom of the cone with an energy up to 0.7 kJ/beam in a 1.5 ps pulse at the time around the maximum implosion. We have observed neutron enhancement up to 3.5 × 107 with total heating energy of 300 J, which is higher than the yield obtained in the previous experiment in 2002 [R. Kodama et al. Nature 418, 933 (2002)]. We found the estimated heating efficiency is at a level of 10–20%. Fuel heating to 5 keV is expected when the full output of LFEX is used.

The fast ignition realization experiment (FIREX) project is progressing. The new short pulse laser system, LFEX laser, has been completely assembled and one of the four beamlets is now in operation. A fast-ignition experiment was performed using this single short pulse combined with the Gekko XII implosion laser. The energy of the GXII implosion laser was about 2 kJ and the pulse width was 1.5 ns. The energy of the LFEX laser was increased upto 800 J and two pulse durations 5 and 1.6 ps were compared. Targets were deuterated plastic shells with gold cones. It was found that the neutron yield was increased by a factor of 30 as a result of the fast electron-induced heating in LFEX 1.6 ps shot. The estimated coupling efficiency between the LFEX laser pulse and the compressed fuel was low (less than 5%). This may be due to pre-plasma formed by light arriving at the target before the main laser pulse. Further investigations and attempts to overcome these problems are now in progress. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

This paper reports an experimental investigation of a scheme to produce an intense, pulsed, point-like, and quasi-monoenergy neutron source. In this scheme, the inner wall of a deuterated plastic spherical cavity is mono-directionally irradiated by a 2.4 kJ laser beam through an open-tip gold cone inserted into the cavity. The whole inner wall of the cavity is illuminated by laser light owing to multiple laser reflections, and the laser-ablated plasma stagnates near the center of the cavity, at which a several keV hot spot is generated. Thermonuclear and beam D-D fusion reactions occur in the hot spot. We have demonstrated the neutron yield exceeding 107 neutrons per pulse from a

Fuel layering of a cryogenic target with a conical laser guide such as the FIREX target is complicated because of its non-spherical symmetry appearance. To simplify the layering, a foam layer is pl...

Interactions of cone targets with different shapes with laser pulses are studied numerically. Two important parameters which characterize the laser-cone interaction in 2006 are introduced, which are cone angle and ratio of laser spot and cone tip. By changing these two parameters, energy coupling from laser to electrons is controlled. Some fraction of high energy electrons generated at side wall and cone tip are not freely propagating out from the target, but confined around the cone tip due to the disturbed electric field.

Measurement techniques have been developed to characterize form shell targets for the Fast Iginition Realization Experiment (FIREX) project. Interferometry has been adopted to determine the volume of hydrogen fuel in the form shell. A preliminary experiment has been conducted to evaluate the aplicability of interferometry. The paper describes the measurement techniques and discuesses its accuracies.

The hot electron generation by irradiation of intense short laser pulses onto cone targets is studied by using 2D PIC simulation. It is shown that the high energy electrons from the cone target are characterized with three effective temprature, while two-temperature for plane target. The electrons composing most energetic component are generated at the cone tip where laser field is intensified by cone-guiding, and electrons for middle component are generated at cone wing which is not observed for plane target. The acceleration processes at cone wing, cone tip, and rear surface are explained.

Fast electrons are effectively generated from solid targets of cone-geometry by irradiating intense laser pulses, which is applied to fast ignition scheme. For realizing optimal core heating by those electrons, understanding the characteristics of electrons emitted from cone targets is crucial. In this paper, in order to understand the generation and transport processes of hot electrons inside the cone target, two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations were carried out. It is shown that hot electrons form current layers which are guided by self-generated surface magnetic field, which results in effective energy transfer from laser pulse to hot electrons. When the hot electrons propagate through the steep density gradient at the cone tip, electrostatic field is induced via Weibel instability. As a result, hot electrons are confined inside and emitted gradually from the target, as an electron beam of long duration. Energy spectrum and temporal profile of hot electrons are also evaluated at the rear side of the target, where the profile of rear side plasma is taken from the fluid code and the result is sent to Fokker-Planck code.

For enhancing the core heating efficiency in electron-driven fast ignition, we proposed the fast electron beam guiding using externally applied longitudinal magnetic fields. Based on the PIC simulations for the FIREX-class experiments, we demonstrated the sufficient beam guiding performance in the collisional dense plasma by kT-class external magnetic fields for the case with moderate mirror ratio (~, 11pages, 8figures

This is the review on the laser fusion research at Institute of Laser Engineering of Osaka University. Since 1996, we have concentrated our efforts on fast ignition laser fusion research. By constructing 100 TW and 1Peta watt lasers, experiments on relativistic laser plasma interactions related to fast ignition and pellet implosion and heating have been carried out. The results indicate that imploded core plasma is heated with relatively high coupling efficiency. According to the above results, we started the FIREX (Fast Ignition Realization Experiment) project for demonstrating ignition and burn with a multi 10kJ short pulse laser. The future prospects of the project are presented in this paper.

Reviewed are the present status and future prospects of the laser fusion research at the ILE Osaka. The Gekko XII and Peta Watt laser system have been operated for investigating the implosion hydrodynamics, fast ignition, and the relativistic laser plasma interactions and so on. In particular, the fast ignition experiments with cone shell target have been in progress as the UK and US-Japan collaboration programs. In the experiments, the imploded high density plasmas are heated by irradiating 500 J level peta-watt laser pulse. The thermal neutron yield is found to increase by three orders of magnitude by injecting the peta-watt laser into the cone shell target. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability experiment results are also reviewed is this paper.

Although we can run large scale 3D simulations using high performance parallel computers, it could be difficult to save enormous simulation results in a storage as raw data for post visualization. Thus results are desired to be directly visualized and stored as small size images during simulations. We have developed an Integrated Volume Rendering System which consists of two subsystems. One is the interactive parameter setting system which makes users easy to determine complex rendering parameters. The other is the batch rendering system which is directly called from FORTRAN code to perform the volume rendering with the parameters set by the above system.

2D PIC simulations for fast ignition with a planar target and an ultrahigh intensity laser have been performed to investigate effects of laser temporal profile on fast electron characteristics. Six different laser profiles, which are combination of two pulse shapes, namely Flattop and Gaussian shapes, and three different maximum intensities 1 × 1020 , 5 × 1019 , and 2.5 × 1019 W/cm2 , are studied under the condition of fixed laser energy. Time-integrated energy spectra, coupling efficiencies from the heating laser to fast electrons, and divergence angle of fast electrons are shown and discussed.

One of the most advanced fast ignition programmes is the fast ignition realization experiment (FIREX). The goal of its first phase is to demonstrate ignition temperature of 5 keV, followed by the second phase to demonstrate ignition-and-burn. The second series experiment of FIREX-I, from late 2010 to early 2011, has demonstrated a high (>10%) coupling efficiency from laser to thermal energy of the compressed core, suggesting that the ignition temperature can be achieved at laser energy below 10 kJ. Further improvement of the coupling efficiency is expected by introducing laser-driven magnetic fields. © 2013 IAEA, Vienna.

Periodic grating structures are self-formed on Mo and Ti. The dependence of the grating structures interspaces on laser fluence can be explained by the parametric decay model in which ablation threshold is taken into account.

Laser pulse contrast exceeding 1011 was demonstrated on a kilojoule-class petawatt laser for fast ignition experiments (LFEX) laser system [J. Phys. IV France133, 81 (2006)10.1051/jp4:2006133016] by implementing a 2 in. plasma mirror. Laser beams of up to 1.2 kJ striking the plasma mirror with a pulse duration of 1.5 ps were reflected and focused onto a target without significant distortions in the focal spot. Transmitted light from the plasma mirror reveals that it has a high reflectivity 2 ps before the main peak. The estimated laser pulse contrast at the target was 1011 at 1 ns before the main peak. No preformed plasma was observed with an optical interferometry diagnostics, but in the experiment without a plasma mirror a preplasma was clearly observed. The energetic proton was generated from a 0.1 μm thick CH film showing excellent pulse contrast. This technique constitutes a promising method to enhance the LFEX laser system performance in fast ignition experiments.

The interaction between ultra-intense laser light and vertically aligned carbon nanotubes is investigated to demonstrate efficient laser-energy absorption in the ps laser-pulse regime. Results indicate a clear enhancement of the energy conversion from laser to energetic electrons and a simultaneously small plasma expansion on the surface of the target. A two-dimensional plasma particle calculation exhibits a high absorption through laser propagation deep into the nanotube array, even for a dense array whose structure is much smaller than the laser wavelength. The propagation leads to the radial expansion of plasma perpendicular to the nanotubes rather than to the front side. These features may contribute to fast ignition in inertial confinement fusion and laser particle acceleration, both of which require high current and small surface plasma simultaneously.

The dependence of high-energy electron generation on the pulse duration of a high intensity LFEX laser was experimentally investigated. The LFEX laser (λ = 1.054 and intensity = 2.5 – 3 x 1018 W/cm2) pulses were focused on a 1 mm3 gold cubic block after reducing the intensities of the foot pulse and pedestal by using a plasma mirror. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) duration of the intense laser pulse could be set to either 1.2 ps or 4 ps by temporally stacking four beams of the LFEX laser, for which the slope temperature of the high-energy electron distribution was 0.7 MeV and 1.4 MeV, respectively. The slope temperature increment cannot be explained without considering pulse duration effects on fast electron generation.

Fast Ignition Realization Experiment project phase-I (FIREX-I) is being performed at Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University. In this project, the four-beam bundled high-energy Petawatt laser (LFEX) is being operated. LFEX laser provides great multi-beam irradiation flexibility, with the possibility of arrange the pulses in temporal sequence, spatially separate them in distinct spots of focus them in a single spot. In this paper, we study the two- beam interference effects on high-intensity picosecond laser-plasma interaction (LPI) by twodimensional relativistic Particle-In-Cell simulations. The interference causes surface perturbation, which enhances laser absorption and underdense plasma generation, increasing the accelerated electron number and their slope temperature. The laser-to-electron energy conversion efficiency for two-beam interference case is suitable for Fast Ignition (FI) compared to the single beam case, but the increment of fast electron divergence leads to lower energy coupling. To optimize the target design for FI, these interference effects should be taken into consideration.

A petawatt laser for fast ignition experiments (LFEX) laser system [N. Miyanaga et al., J. Phys. IV France 133, 81 (2006)], which is currently capable of delivering 2 kJ in a 1.5 ps pulse using 4 laser beams, has been constructed beside the GEKKO-XII laser facility for demonstrating efficient fast heating of a dense plasma up to the ignition temperature under the auspices of the Fast Ignition Realization EXperiment (FIREX) project [H. Azechi et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 104024 (2009)]. In the FIREX experiment, a cone is attached to a spherical target containing a fuel to prevent a corona plasma from entering the path of the intense heating LFEX laser beams. The LFEX laser beams are focused at the tip of the cone to generate a relativistic electron beam (REB), which heats a dense fuel core generated by compression of a spherical deuterized plastic target induced by the GEKKO-XII laser beams. Recent studies indicate that the current heating efficiency is only 0.4%, and three requirements to achieve higher efficiency of the fast ignition (FI) scheme with the current GEKKO and LFEX systems have been identified: (i) reduction of the high energy tail of the REB; (ii) formation of a fuel core with high areal density using a limited number (twelve) of GEKKO-XII laser beams as well as a limited energy (4 kJ of 0.53-μm light in a 1.3 ns pulse); (iii) guiding and focusing of the REB to the fuel core. Laser–plasma interactions in a long-scale plasma generate electrons that are too energetic to efficiently heat the fuel core. Three actions were taken to meet the first requirement. First, the intensity contrast of the foot pulses to the main pulses of the LFEX was improved to >109. Second, a 5.5-mm-long cone was introduced to reduce pre-heating of the inner cone wall caused by illumination of the unconverted 1.053-μm light of implosion beam (GEKKO-XII). Third, the outside of the cone wall was coated with a 40-μm plastic layer to protect it from the pressure caused by imploding plasma. Following the above improvements, conversion of 13% of the LFEX laser energy to a low energy portion of the REB, whose slope temperature is 0.7 MeV, which is close to the ponderomotive scaling value, was achieved. To meet the second requirement, the compression of a solid spherical ball with a diameter of 200-μm to form a dense core with an areal density of ∼0.07 g/cm2 was induced by a laser-driven spherically converging shock wave. Converging shock compression is more hydrodynamically stable compared to shell implosion, while a hot spot cannot be generated with a solid ball target. Solid ball compression is preferable also for compressing an external magnetic field to collimate the REB to the fuel core, due to the relatively small magnetic Reynolds number of the shock compressed region. To meet the third requirement, we have generated a strong kilo-tesla magnetic field using a laser-driven capacitor-coil target. The strength and time history of the magnetic field were characterized with proton deflectometry and a B-dot probe. Guidance of the REB using a 0.6-kT field in a planar geometry has been demonstrated at the LULI 2000 laser facility. In a realistic FI scenario, a magnetic mirror is formed between the REB generation point and the fuel core. The effects of the strong magnetic field on not only REB transport but also plasma compression were studied using numerical simulations. According to the transport calculations, the heating efficiency can be improved from 0.4% to 4% by the GEKKO and LFEX laser system by meeting the three requirements described above. This efficiency is scalable to 10% of the heating efficiency by increasing the areal density of the fuel core.

Mechanical design of an experimental apparatus for FIREX cryo-target cooling is described. Gaseous helium (GHe) sealing system at a cryogenic environment is an important issue for laser fusion experiments. The dedicated loading system was designed for a metal gasket. We take U-TIGHTSEAL® (Usui Kokusai Sangyo Kaisha. Ltd.) with an indium plated copper jacket as an example. According to its specification, a linear load of 110 N/m along its circumference is the optimum compression; however a lower load would still maintain helium (He) leak below the required level. Its sealing performance was investigated systematically. Our system demanded 27 N/mm of the load to keep He leak tightness in a cryogenic environment. Once leak tightness was obtained, it could be reduced to 9.5 N/mm.

The traditional fast ignition scheme is that a compressed core created by an imploding laser is auxiliary heated and ignited by the hot electrons (produced by a short pulse laser guided through the cone and guided under-dense plasma). However sufficient heating has not be achieved because the hot electron energy is too high and dissipated in the cone, the angular divergence of the hot electron is too large, and the distance from the generation point to the core is too long. Here we clarify the problems of fast ignition by observation of the hot-electron spectra.

FIREX targets have been developed under two layering strategies: foam shell and cone guide laser heating methods. Basic studies have been conducted by the collaboration research between ILE and NIFS. Then the next stage requires the characterization of a layered solid fuel. The present system is at the disadvantage of optical observations. Therefore, a new apparatus is designed to solve it. Glass windows with a wide aperture are installed for an interferometer and a microscope. To isolate the vibration from a cryocooler, active vibration control units are equipped, and flexible thermal conductive links are utilized. Furthermore, a quick target exchange mechanism is applied to deal with different types of FIREX targets. A target holder is detachable from a main vacuum chamber. A metal gasket with not fixing bolts but a load of ~ thousand newtons on ensures GHe leak tightness for target cooling. Eventually, the design temperature of 10.00 K at a target container has been achieved. The cool-down performance indecates that the new apparatus provides a cryogenic environment for fuel layering demonstrations.

In direct drive laser fusion, the non-uniformity of the laser absorption on the target surface caused by the irradiation of a finite number of laser beams is a sever problem. GekkoXII laser at Osaka University has twelve laser beams and is irradiated to the target with a dodecahedron orientation, in which the distribution of the laser absorption on the target surface becomes non-uniform. Furthermore, in the case of a cone-guided target, the laser irradiation orientation is more limited. In this paper, we conducted implosion simulations of the cone- guided target based on GekkoXII irradiation orientation and compared the case of using the twelve beams and nine beams where the three beams irradiating the cone region are cut. The implosion simulations were conducted by a three-dimensional pure hydro code.

Stimulated Raman scattering near the quarter critical density saturates by two different mechanisms. The first is the high‐energy electrons generated by Landau damping of plasma waves and the other is plasma density profile modification by the ponderomotive force of plasma waves. Simulations were performed with a one‐and‐a‐half dimensional relativistic electromagnetic particle code to investigate those mechanisms and the pulsation dynamics of the scattered wave found. Finally, simulation results are compared with a simple theoretical model.

The traditional fast ignition scheme is that a compressed core created using an imploding laser is auxiliary heated and ignited by hot electrons (produced using a short pulse laser guided through the cone). However, sufficient heating cannot be achieved due to the highly hot-electron energy spectra, the energy loss in the cone, the large divergence of the hot electron and the long distance between the core and the generation point. Here, we propose a new target based on a hole-cone shell target experiment.

An electron energy spectrometer (ESM) is one of the most fundamental diagnostics in the fast ignition experiment. It is necessary to observe the spectra down to a low energy range in order to obtain the accurate deposition efficiency toward the core. Here, we realize the suitable ESM by using a ferrite magnet with a moderate magnetic field of 0.3 T and a rectangular magnetic circuit covered with a steel plate in the inlet side.

The calculation of the laser absorption is very important for implosion simulations to capture precisely its dynamics. In many implosion simulations, the laser absorption is computed by the use of ray tracing. However, the conventional ray tracing method has the problem that it generates a non-physical absorption distribution because it represents a laser beam by a finite number of rays. Such a non-physical distribution on the target surface could be numerical perturbations that grow drastically due to Rayleigh-Taylor instability. An enormous number of rays are required to avoid such a non-physical distribution. This results in high computational costs. Thus, we have developed a new method of ray tracing that essentially generates no non-physical absorption distribution. In the new algorithm, rays are inversely traced from grid points unlike the conventional method. This paper presents the new algorithm and a preliminary implosion simulation where the pressure perturbation due to the non-uniformity of the irradiation is computed by the use of this new ray tracing.

In inertial confinement fusion, the implosion process is important in forming a high-density plasma core. In the case of a fast ignition scheme using a cone-guided target, the fuel target is imploded with a cone inserted. This scheme is advantageous for efficiently heating the imploded fuel core; however, asymmetric implosion is essentially inevitable. Moreover, the effect of cone position and opening angle on implosion also becomes critical. Focusing on these problems, the effect of the asymmetric implosion, the initial position, and the opening angle on the compression rate of the fuel is investigated using a three-dimensional pure hydrodynamic code.

In a fast ignition scheme using a cone-guided target, the fusion target is imploded with the inserted cone. Due to the existence of the cone, asymmetric implosion is not avoidable, which has the possibility to degrade fuel compression efficiency. This paper shows how the fuel compression and temperature at the maximum compression time are affected by changing the initial opening angle and position of the cone by the use of two and three dimensional fluid code.

Quasi-static magnetic fields, which are induced by the Weibel instability and grow to more than hundred Megagauss, lead to large divergence angle of fast electrons, hence lower energy coupling. To suppress the divergence, two different structures, namely density trough and punched out holes, are introduced to targets. In the density trough target, the Weibel instability is enhanced and the divergence is getting worse. On the other hand, the divergence angle is improved but the number of electrons is degraded for fast electrons (

In cone-guiding fast ignition, the guiding of fast electron beam with significantly large beam divergence is one of the most important issues for achieving efficient core heating. We proposed two guiding schemes; one is the “Tongari” tip guiding by resistive magnetic fields and the other is the guiding by externally applying axial magnetic fields. The guiding performances for these two schemes are demonstrated by Particle-In-Cell and Fokker-Planck simulations.

The interaction between ultra intensity laser and dense plasma is investigated with the use of a 1‐1/2 dimensional electromagnetic, relativistic both electron and ion, particle‐in‐cell code, EMPAC. When laser intensity is increased, the laser front can propagate into the plasma slab even if its density is greater than the critical density and the plasma is classically opaque. The propagation velocity of the laser front is compared with the analytical model. The intensity threshold is characterized as a function of plasma density and ion‐electron mass ratio.

Based on the successful result of fast heating of a shell target with a cone for heating beam injection at Osaka University in 2002 using the PW laser (Kodama et al 2002 Nature 418 933), the FIREX-1 project was started in 2004. Its goal is to demonstrate fuel heating up to 5 keV using an upgraded heating laser beam. For this purpose, the LFEX laser, which can deliver an energy up to10 kJ in a 0.5–20 ps pulse at its full spec, has been constructed in addition to the Gekko-XII laser system at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University. It has been activated and became operational since 2009. Following the previous experiment with the PW laser, upgraded integrated experiments of fast ignition have been started using the LFEX laser with an energy up to 1 kJ in 2009 and 2 kJ in 2010 in a 1–5 ps 1.053 µm pulse. Experimental results including implosion of the shell target by Gekko-XII, heating of the imploded fuel core by LFEX laser injection, and increase of the neutron yield due to fast heating compared with no heating have been achieved. Results in the 2009 experiment indicated that the heating efficiency was 3–5%, much lower than the 20–30% expected from the previous 2002 data. It was attributed to the very hot electrons generated in a long scale length plasma in the cone preformed with a prepulse in the LFEX beam. The prepulse level was significantly reduced in the 2010 experiment to improve the heating efficiency. Also we have improved the plasma diagnostics significantly which enabled us to observe the plasma even in the hard x-ray harsh environment. In the 2010 experiment, we have observed neutron enhancement up to 3.5 × 107 with total heating energy of 300 J on the target, which is higher than the yield obtained in the 2009 experiment and the previous data in 2002. We found the estimated heating efficiency to be at a level of 10–20%. 5 keV heating is expected at the full output of the LFEX laser by controlling the heating efficiency.