Electromagnetic Pulses Generated From Laser Target Interactions at Shenguang Ⅱ Laser Facility

Significant electromagnetic pulses （EMP） can be generated by the intensive laser irradiating solid targets in inertial confinement fusion （ICF）. To evaluate the EMP intensity and distribution in and outside the laser chamber, we designed and fabricated a discone antenna with ultra-wide bands of over 10 GHz. The return loss （Sn parameter） of this antenna was below -10 dB and could even achieve under -30 dB at 3.1 GHz. The EMP intensity in this study at 80 cm and 40 cm away from the target chamber center （TCC） reached 400 kV/m and 2000 kV/m. The current results are expected to offer preliminary information to study physics regarding laser plasma interactions and will also lay experimental foundation for EMI shielding design to protect various diagnostics.

Ramp-Wave Compression Experiment with Direct Laser Illumination on ShenGuang-Ⅲ Prototype Laser Facility

Ramp-wave compression experiment to balance the high compression pressure generation in aluminum and x-ray blanking effect in transparent window is demonstrated with an imaging velocity interferometer system for any reflector （VISAR） on ShenGuang-Ⅲprototype laser facility. The highest pressure is about 500 GPa after using the multilayer target design Al/Au/Al/LiF and -10^13 W//cm2 laser pulse illuminated on the planar Al target, which generates the spatial uniformity to 〈1% over 500 μm on the ablation layer. A 2-μm-thick Au layer is used to prevent the x-ray from preheating the planar ablation Al layer and window material LiF. The imaging VISAR system can be used to record the abrupt loss of the probe beam （λ= 532 nm） caused by absorption and reflection of 20-μm, 30-μm and 40-μm-thick Al, i.e., the blanking effect. Although there are slight shocks in the target, the peak pressure 500 GPa, which is the highest data up to now, is obtained with ramp-wave compression.

Demonstration of a Shock-Timing Experiment in a CH Layer at the Shen Guang Ⅲ Laser Facility

Shock-timing experiments are indispensable to inertial confinement fusion mainly because the timing of multiple shock waves is crucial to understanding the processes of laser irradiation of targets. Investigations into shock waves driven by a two-step radiation pulse in polystyrene（CH） capsule targets are experimentally conducted at the Shen Guang Ⅱ laser facility. Differing from the traditional shock-timing implementation in which one shock wave could catch up with another one in solid CH, in this experiment, the second shock front in a rarefaction CH layer is observed through velocity interferometry. This second shock could also be made to converge with rarefaction waves within only a few micrometers of the CH capsule by designing the two-shock coalescence time. A shock-timing diagnostic technique to tune the multi-shock convergence in the CH capsule can thereby be achieved.The experimental results in the CH layer are quasi-quantitatively interpreted using streamlines simulated with the Multi-1 D program. The experimental results are expected to offer important information for target structure and laser pulse design, both of which are important for realizing inertial confinement fusion.

Effective electromagnetic shielding with multi-layer structure material on Shenguang laser facility

Electromagnetic pulses(EMPs)with high intensity and frequency bandwidth can be generated during the intensive laser irradiating solid targets in inertial confinement fusion(ICF).To shield the EMPs radiation and hence protect various diagnostics in and outside the target chamber,we designed a multi-layer structure material to shield the EMFs and demonstrate experimentally and numerically shielding performance of the material structure.The thickness of the multi-layer structure material has a great influence on the EMPs shielding.It is shown that,with the increase of the material thickness,the better shielding performance is obtained,and the material structure with polytetrafluoroethyIene of 0.5 mm,copper of 0.4 mm and lead of 2.4 mm reduces 448 times compared the maximum value of EMPs voltage to that without shielded.The design of multilayer structure material for EMPs shielding provides a promising way to reduce EMPs radiation,which is extremely useful for the diagnostics protection and signal processing in ICF.

New Laser Facility SG-Ⅱ Established

A novel laser facility, named SG-Ⅱ (Shenguang, or Divine Light), has recently passed the appraisal of a panel of experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China Academy of Engineering Physics, and State High-tech Development Program (National 863 Program). ……

Theoretical analysis of frequency modulation-to-amplitude modulation on the final optics and target of the SG Ⅱ-Up laser facility

Frequency modulation(FM)-to-amplitude modulation(AM) conversion is an important factor that affects the time±power curve of inertial confinement fusion(ICF) high-power laser facilities. This conversion can impact uniform compression and increase the risk of damage to optics. However, the dispersive grating used in the smoothing by spectral dispersion technology will introduce a temporal delay and can spatially smooth the target. The combined effect of the dispersive grating and the focusing lens is equivalent to a Gaussian low-pass filter, which is equivalent to 8 GHz bandwidth and can reduce the intensity modulation on the target to below 5% with 0.3 nm @ 3 GHz + 20 GHz spectrum phase modulation. The results play an important role in the testing and evaluating of the FM-to-AM on the final optics and the target, which is beneficial for comprehensively evaluating the load capacity of the facility and isentropic compression experiment for ICF.

An accurate and stable method of array element tiling for high-power laser facilities

Due to laser-induced damage, the aperture of optics is one of the main factors limiting the output capability of highpower laser facilities. Because of the general difficulty in achieving large-aperture optics, an alternative solution is to tile some small-aperture ones together. We propose an accurate, stable, and automatic method of array element tiling and verify it on a double-pass 1 × 2 tiled-grating compressor in the XG-III laser facility. The test results show the accuracy and stability of the method. This research provides an efficient way to obtain large-aperture optics for high-power laser facilities.

Design and performance of final optics assembly in SG-ⅡUpgrade laser facility

In high power laser facility for inertial confinement fusion research, final optics assembly(FOA) plays a critical role in the frequency conversion, beam focusing, color separation, beam sampling and debris shielding. The design and performance of FOA in SG-II Upgrade laser facility are mainly introduced here. Due to the limited space and short focal length, a coaxial aspheric wedged focus lens is designed and applied in the FOA configuration. Then the ghost image analysis,the focus characteristic analysis, the B integral control design and the optomechanical design are carried out in the FOA design phase. In order to ensure the FOA performance, two key technologies are developed including measurement and adjustment technique of the wedged focus lens and the stray light management technique based on ground glass.Experimental results show that the design specifications including laser fluence, frequency conversion efficiency and perforation efficiency of the focus spot have been achieved, which meet the requirements of physical experiments well.

Simulation studies of laser wakefield acceleration based on typical 100 TW laser facilities

In this paper, 2-D Particle-In-Cell simulations are made for Laser Wakefield Accelerations （LWFA）. As in a real experiment, we perform plasma density scanning for typical 100 TW laser facilities. Several basic laws for self-injected acceleration in a bubble regime are presented. According to these laws, we choose a proper plasma density and then obtain a high quality quasi-monoenergetic electron bunch with a rms energy of more than 650 MeV and a bunch length of less than 1.5 μm.