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Bright, energetic, and directional electron bunches are generated through efficient energy transfer of relativistic intense (~ 10 19  W/cm 2 ), 30 femtosecond, 800 nm high contrast laser pulses to grating targets (500 lines/mm and 1000 lines/mm), under surface plasmon resonance (SPR) conditions. Bi-directional relativistic electron bunches (at 40° and 150°) are observed exiting from the 500 lines/mm grating target at the SPR conditions. The surface plasmon excited grating target enhances the electron flux and temperature by factor of 6.0 and 3.6, respectively, compared to that of the plane substrate. Particle-in-Cell simulations indicate that fast electrons are emitted in different directions at different stages of the laser interaction, which are related to the resultant surface magnetic field evolution. This study suggests that the SPR mechanism can be used to generate multiple, bright, ultrafast relativistic electron bunches for a variety of applications.

High resolution X-ray imaging is crucial for many high energy density physics (HEDP) experiments. Recently developed techniques to improve resolution have, however, come at the cost of a decreased field of view. In this paper, an innovative experimental detector for X-ray imaging in the context of HEDP experiments with high spatial resolution, as well as a large field of view, is presented. The platform is based on coupling an X-ray backligther source with a Lithium Fluoride detector, characterized by its large dynamic range. A spatial resolution of 2 µm over a field of view greater than 2 mm 2 is reported. The platform was benchmarked with both an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) and an X-ray source produced by a short pulse laser. First, using a non-coherent short pulse laser-produced backlighter, reduced penumbra blurring, as a result of the large size of the X-ray source, is shown. Secondly, we demonstrate phase contrast imaging with a fully coherent monochromatic XFEL beam. Modeling of the absorption and phase contrast transmission of X-ray radiation passing through various targets is presented.

Modern high-power lasers can generate extreme states of matter that are relevant to astrophysics 1 , equation-of-state studies 2 and fusion energy research 3 , 4 . Laser-driven implosions of spherical polymer shells have, for example, achieved an increase in density of 1,000 times relative to the solid state 5 . These densities are large enough to enable controlled fusion, but to achieve energy gain a small volume of compressed fuel (known as the ‘spark’) must be heated to temperatures of about 10 8  K (corresponding to thermal energies in excess of 10 keV). In the conventional approach to controlled fusion, the spark is both produced and heated by accurately timed shock waves 4 , but this process requires both precise implosion symmetry and a very large drive energy. In principle, these requirements can be significantly relaxed by performing the compression and fast heating separately 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ; however, this ‘fast ignitor’ approach 7 also suffers drawbacks, such as propagation losses and deflection of the ultra-intense laser pulse by the plasma surrounding the compressed fuel. Here we employ a new compression geometry that eliminates these problems; we combine production of compressed matter in a laser-driven implosion with picosecond-fast heating by a laser pulse timed to coincide with the peak compression. Our approach therefore permits efficient compression and heating to be carried out simultaneously, providing a route to efficient fusion energy production.

Fast ignition (FI) is a promising approach for high-energy-gain inertial confinement fusion in the laboratory. To achieve ignition, the energy of a short-pulse laser is required to be delivered efficiently to the pre-compressed fuel core via a high-energy electron beam. Therefore, understanding the transport and energy deposition of this electron beam inside the pre-compressed core is the key for FI. Here we report on the direct observation of the electron beam transport and deposition in a compressed core through the stimulated Cu Kα emission in the super-penetration scheme. Simulations reproducing the experimental measurements indicate that, at the time of peak compression, about 1% of the short-pulse energy is coupled to a relatively low-density core with a radius of 70 μm. Analysis with the support of 2D particle-in-cell simulations uncovers the key factors improving this coupling efficiency. Our findings are of critical importance for optimizing FI experiments in a super-penetration scheme. Fast ignition is an interesting scheme for nuclear fusion reaction. Here the authors show electron generation using intense short laser pulses and energy transport by coupling the laser energy to the imploded plasma core as in the ICF conditions.

The ability to produce long-scale length (i.e. millimeter scale-length), homogeneous plasmas is of interest in studying a wide range of fundamental plasma processes. We present here a validated experimental platform to create and diagnose uniform plasmas with a density close or above the critical density. The target consists of a polyimide tube filled with an ultra low-density plastic foam where it was heated by x-rays, produced by a long pulse laser irradiating a copper foil placed at one end of the tube. The density and temperature of the ionized foam was retrieved by using x-ray radiography and proton radiography was used to verify the uniformity of the plasma. Plasma temperatures of 5–10 eV and densities around 10 21  cm −3 are measured. This well-characterized platform of uniform density and temperature plasma is of interest for experiments using large-scale laser platforms conducting High Energy Density Physics investigations.

Rapid heating of a compressed fusion fuel by a short-duration laser pulse is a promising route to generating energy by nuclear fusion, and has been demonstrated on an experimental scale using a novel fast-ignitor geometry. Here we describe a refinement of this system in which a much more powerful, pulsed petawatt (1015 watts) laser creates a fast-heated core plasma that is scalable to full-scale ignition, significantly increasing the number of fusion events while still maintaining high heating efficiency at these substantially higher laser energies. Our findings bring us a step closer to realizing the production of relatively inexpensive, full-scale fast-ignition laser facilities.

The development of ultra-intense lasers 1 has facilitated new studies in laboratory astrophysics 2 and high-density nuclear science 3 , including laser fusion 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . Such research relies on the efficient generation of enormous numbers of high-energy charged particles. For example, laser–matter interactions at petawatt (10 15  W) power levels can create pulses of MeV electrons 8 , 9 , 10 with current densities as large as 10 12  A cm -2 . However, the divergence of these particle beams 5 usually reduces the current density to a few times 10 6  A cm -2 at distances of the order of centimetres from the source. The invention of devices that can direct such intense, pulsed energetic beams will revolutionize their applications. Here we report high-conductivity devices consisting of transient plasmas that increase the energy density of MeV electrons generated in laser–matter interactions by more than one order of magnitude. A plasma fibre created on a hollow-cone target guides and collimates electrons in a manner akin to the control of light by an optical fibre and collimator. Such plasma devices hold promise for applications using high energy-density particles and should trigger growth in charged particle optics.

Ultra intense laser light propagation in a homogeneous overdense plasma was investigated using a plastic foam target filling a polyimide tube. Laser propagation into overdense plasma was measured via Doppler red shift of the reflected laser light from the moving plasma at 0.3-0.4 of speed of light. We also observed strongly collimated electron beam possibly caused by the magnetic field surrounding the plasma channel, and high energy X-rays emitted via synchrotron radiation by the oscillating electrons inside the channel. These features imply that UIL propagates inside the overdense plasma as predicted in PIC calculation, and are very important for direct irradiation scheme of fast ignition.

The transport of relativistic electron beam in compressed cylindrical targets was studied from a numerical and experimental point of view. In the experiment, cylindrical targets were imploded using the Gekko XII laser facility of the Institute of Laser Engineering. Then the fast electron beam was created by shooting the LFEX laser beam. The penetration of fast electrons was studied by observing Kα emission from tracer layers in the target.