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Fast ignitor: Fluid dynamics of channel formation and laser beam propagation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

S. Hain  and
P. Mulser
S. Hain
Affiliation:
Theoretical Quantum Electronics (TQE), Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 4A, 64289 Darmstadt, FRG
P. Mulser
Affiliation:
Theoretical Quantum Electronics (TQE), Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 4A, 64289 Darmstadt, FRG
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Abstract

The concept of fast ignitor is intimately connected with the fundamental phenomenon of ultra-intense light beam propagation through dense matter in which kinetic effects combine with radiation pressure dominated hydrodynamics to form a complex scenario of extremely non-linear physics. In this paper, the fluid dynamic aspect of channel formation in a highly over-dense plasma is studied and possible attenuation mechanisms of the propagating pulse are evaluated in one dimension. Under the assumption that mass ablation reaches a quasistationary state, the radiation-assisted ablation pressure, the speed of the bow shock, and the density steepening around the critical point are determined self-consistently from the ID fluid conservation relations and the electromagnetic wave equation. Due to ponderomotive profile steepening, the ablation pressure is reduced by 40% in the subsonic region and is dominated by the radiation pressure in the supersonic domain. Channel lengths are calculated for various intensities and pellet compression ratios. Likewise, the nonlinear propagation of a superintense electromagnetic wave in an underdense plasma channel is investigated for the ID case with the help of a relativistic fluid model.

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 541 - 556
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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