29th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2016)

P2.206 Laser-driven accelerator of intense plasma beams for materials research

6 Sep 2016, 14:20

1h 40m

Foyer 2A (2nd floor), 3A (3rd floor) (Prague Congress Centre)

Board: 206

Poster K. Laser and Accelerator Technologies P2 Poster session

Speaker

Agnieszka Zaras-Szydłowska (Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion)

Description

A concept and a laboratory model of the laser-driven accelerator of plasma beams for materials research is presented. The accelerator is based on the laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration (LICPA) scheme [1] and includes four parts: (1) the laser driver, (2) the plasma cavity where high-temperature plasma is created by the laser driver  and a high plasma pressure is generated, (3) the acceleration channel where the plasma beam is formed and accelerated by the plasma pressure, (4) the beam guiding channel which enables us to control the plasma beam parameters (the beam fluence, intensity and duration). It is predicted that the accelerator employing a commercial nanosecond laser of energy 2 – 3 J would be capable of producing a plasma beam of controlled composition and the beam fluence up to 200 J/cm²2, the beam peak intensity up to 20 GW/cm²2 and the beam duration within the 10 ns – 10 ms range. The accelerator has a potential to work with a repetition rate up to a few Hz (in a burst of  ~ 50 - 100 shots) with the beam average intensity up to  1 kW/cm²2. A laboratory model of the accelerator with a 0.5J/4ns Nd:YAG laser driver was built and tested. A CH plasma beam of the fluence ~ 10 J/cm²2 and the peak intensity ~ 100 MW/cm²2 at the accelerator channel exit was produced with the laser-to-beam energy conversion efficiency approaching 15 %.  A strong surface damage of various metal samples by the beam was observed. The proposed accelerator of plasma beams is a novel tool for materials research which seems to be particularly useful  for testing materials proposed for future fusion reactors both the MCF and ICF ones. [1] J. Badziak et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 053105 (2012).