Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Charles Chiu and Boris Breizman. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): William L. Kruer, William B. Colson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-99). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

This thesis experimentally investigates laser-driven proton acceleration in the regime of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) using ultrashort (pulse duration τL = 30 fs), high power (∼100TW) laser pulses. The work focuses on how the temporal intensity profile of the ultrashort laser pulse influences the plasma formation during the laser-target interaction and the subsequent acceleration process. The corresponding experiments are performed at the Draco laser facility at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden – Rossendorf. The main result of the thesis is the experimental observation of transverse spatial modulations in the laser-driven proton distribution. The onset of the modulations occurs above a target-dependent laser energy threshold and is found to correlate with parasitic laser emission preceding the ultrashort laser pulse. The analysis of the underlying plasma dynamics by using numerical simulations indicates that plasma instabilities lead to the filamentation of the laser-accelerated electron distribution. The resulting spatial pattern in the electron distribution is then transferred to the proton distribution during the acceleration process. The plasma instabilities, which the electron current is subjected to, are a surface-ripple-seeded Rayleigh-Taylor or a Weibel instability. Regarding their occurrence, both instabilities show a strong dependence on the initial plasma conditions at the target. This supports the experimentally observed connection between the temporal intensity profile of the laser pulse and the development of spatial modulations in the proton distribution. The study is considered the first observation of (regular) proton beam modulations for TNSA in the regime of ultrashort laser pulses and micrometer thick target foils. The experiments emphasize the requirement for TNSA laser power scaling studies under the consideration of realistic laser-plasma interaction conditions. In that way, the potential of the upcoming generation of Petawatt power lasers for laser-driven proton acceleration can be assessed and fully exploited. In the second part of the thesis, experimental pump-probe techniques are investigated. With an imaging method termed high depth-of-field time-resolved microscopy in a reflective probing setup, micrometer-size local features of the near-critical density plasma as well as the global topography of the plasma can be resolved. The spatio-temporal resolution of the target ionization and heating dynamics is achieved by probing the target reflectivity, whereas the angular distribution of the reflected probe beam carries signatures of the plasma expansion. The presented probing technique avails to correlate the temporal intensity profile of a laser pulse with the spatio-temporal plasma evolution triggered upon laser-target interaction.

In some high-field laser-plasma experiments, it is advantageous to accompany the main high-energy (~1 J) laser with a second high-energy pulse (~0.1 J) which has been frequency-shifted by ~10-20%. Such a pulse-pair would have a low walk-off velocity while remaining spectrally distinct for use in two-color pump-probe experiments. Moreover, by shifting the second pulse by ~plasma frequency, it is theoretically possible to exercise some amount of control over a variety of laser-plasma instabilities, including forward Raman scattering, electromagnetic cascading, and relativistic self-focusing. Alternatively, the two pulses may be counter-propagated so that the collide in the plasma and create a slowly-propagating beatwave which can be used to inject electrons into a laser wakefield accelerator. The design, characeterization, and performance of a hybrid chirped-pulse Raman amplifier (CPRA)/Ti-Sapphire amplifier are reported and discussed. This hybrid system allows for the generation of a high-energy (>200 mJ), broadband (15-20 nm bandwidth FWHM), short duration (>100 fs duration) laser sideband. When amplified and compressed, the Raman beam's power exceeds 1 TW. This sideband is combined with the primary laser system to create a bi-color terawatt laser system which is capable of performing two-color high-field experiments. This two-color capability can be added to any commercial terawatt laser system without compromising the energy, duration or beam quality of the primary system. Preliminary two-color laser-plasma experiments are also discussed. / text

L'utilisation des lasers de puissance permet l'étude des propriétés de la matière dans des conditions extrêmes de température et de densité. En effet, l'interaction d'un laser de puissance sur une cible créée un plasma dont la température est suffisamment grande pour atteindre des degrés d'ionisation élevés. Ces conditions peuvent permettre, via divers processus, d'exciter le noyau dans un état nucléaire et notamment dans un état isomère. Un noyau d'intérêt pour étudier ces phénomènes est le 201 Hg. Ce travail de thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre du dimensionnement d'une expérience visant la mise en évidence de l'excitation du 201 Hg dans un plasma laser.La première partie de ce manuscrit présente la détermination des taux d'excitation nucléaire dans les plasmas. Depuis une dizaine d'années les taux d'excitation sont déterminés en utilisant le modèle de l'atome moyen. Afin de valider ce modèle, un code, appelé ADAM (Au-Delà de l'Atome Moyen), a été développé afin de calculer le taux d'excitation nucléaire en DCA (Detailed Conguration Accounting). Il nous permettra d'en déduire un domaine thermodynamique en température et densité où les taux d'excitation déterminés avec le modèle de l'atome moyen sont pertinents.La deuxième partie présente le couplage des taux d'excitation nucléaire avec un code hydrodynamique afin d'en déduire, pour différentes intensités laser, le nombre de noyaux qu'il serait possible d'exciter par tir laser. Enfin, dans une dernière partie,les premières approches expérimentales qui serviront au dimensionnement d'une expérience sur une installation laser sont présentées. Ces approches sont basées sur la détection et la détermination de la quantité d'ions multichargés obtenue loin de la cible (~80 cm). Pour cela, un déviateur électrostatique a été utilisé. / The use of high power lasers allows the study of the properties of matter in extremeconditions of temperature and density. Indeed, the interaction of a power laser and atarget creates a plasma in which the temperature is high enough to reach important degrees of ionization. These conditions can allow the excitation of the nucleus. Anucleus of interest to study the processes of nuclear excitation is the 201 Hg. Thiswork aims to design an experiment where the 201 Hg excitation will be observed in aplasma produced by a high power laser. The first part of this manuscript presents the calculation of the expected nuclear excitation rates in the plasma. For about ten years, nuclear excitation rates have been calculated using the average atom model. To validate this model a code named ADAM (french acronym for Beyond The Average Atom Model) was developed to calculate the nuclear excitation rates under the DCA (Detailed Configuration Accounting) hypothesis. ADAM allows us to deduce the thermo dynamical domain where the nuclear excitation rates determined with the average atom model are relevant. The second part of this manuscript presents the coupling of the excitation rate calculation with a hydrodynamic code to calculate the number of excited nuclei produced in one laser shot for different laser intensity. Finally, in the last part, first experimental approaches which will be used to design an experiment on a laser installation are presented. These approaches are based on the detection and determination of the amount of multicharged ions obtained far from the target (~80 cm). For this purpose, an electrostatic analyzer was used.

Cette thèse présente le développement d’une méthode ALE pour la modélisation del’interaction laser–plasma. La particularité de cette méthode est l’utilisation d’une étape de projectiond’ordre élevé. Cette étape de projection consiste en une interpolation conservative des quantitésconservatives du maillage Lagrangien sur un maillage régularisé. Afin d’éviter les oscillationsnumériques non-physiques, les flux numériques d’ordre élevé sont combinés avec des fluxnumériques d’ordre moins élevé. Ces flux numériques sont obtenu en considérant les quantitésconservatives constantes par morceaux. Cette méthode pour la discrétisation cellule–centrée consisteà préserver les maximums locaux pour la densité, la vitesse et l’énergie interne. Aspects particuliersde la méthode sont appliquées pour la projection la quantité de mouvement pour la discrétisation’staggered’. Nous l’utilisons ici dans le cadre de la projection sous la forme de la méthode FluxCorrection Remapping (FCR). Dans cette thèse le volet applicatif concerne la modélisation del’interaction d’un laser énergétique avec de plasma et des matériaux microstructures. Un intérêtparticulier est porté à la modélisation de l’absorption du laser par une mousse de faible densité.L’absorption se fait à deux échelles spatiales simultanément. Ce modèle d’absorption laser à deuxéchelles est mis en oeuvre dans le code PALE hydrodynamique. Les simulations numériques de lavitesse de pénétration du laser dans une mousse à faible densité sont en bon accord avec lesdonnées expérimentales. / This thesis presents the overview and the original contributions to a high–orderArbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method applicable for the laser–generated plasma modeling withthe focus to a remapping step of the ALE method. The remap is the conservative interpolation of theconservative quantities from a low–quality Lagrangian grid onto a better, smoothed one. To avoidnon–physical numerical oscillations, the high–order numerical fluxes of the reconstruction arecombined with the low–order (first–order) numerical fluxes produced by a standard donor remappingmethod. The proposed method for a cell–centered discretization preserves bounds for the density,velocity and specific internal energy by its construction. Particular symmetry–preserving aspects of themethod are applied for a staggered momentum remap. The application part of the thesis is devoted tothe laser radiation absorption modeling in plasmas and microstructures materials with the particularinterest in the laser absorption in low–density foams. The absorption is modeled on two spatial scalessimultaneously. This two–scale laser absorption model is implemented in the hydrodynamic codePALE. The numerical simulations of the velocity of laser penetration in a low–density foam are in agood agreement with the experimental data.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Hons.)) -- University of Western Sydney, 2002. / "A thesis submitted as part of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Honours)" Bibliography : leaves 175-181.

This thesis describes a detailed investigation into the process of laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) for the generation of high-energy electron beams using the hydrogen-filled capillary discharge waveguide. In only the second experiment to be performed using the newly commissioned Astra-Gemini laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, electron beams were accelerated to energies greater than 0.5 GeV by laser pulses of energy 2.5J and peak power of 30T\~T. The injec- tion and acceleration of electron beams was seen to depend on the state of the plasma channel for axial electron densities less than 2.5 x 1018 cm -3. With the aid of simulations performed using the code WAKE it was found that the plasma channel allows the laser pulse to maintain its self-focussed spot size along the length of the capillary even below the critical power for self-guiding. It was found that the threshold laser energy required for the production of elec- tron beams was reduced by the use of an aperture placed early in the laser system. This was attributed to the increased energy contained in the central part of the focal spot of the laser. A short paper on this work was published in Physical Review Special Topics - Accelerators and Beams and a longer paper was published in the New Journal of Physics. Transverse interferometry was used to measure the electron density of the plasma channel used in the Astra-Gemini experiments. An imaging system was devised which used cylindrical optics to increase the field of view of the capillary longitudinally, whilst maintaining the trans- verse resolution. The measured properties were consistent with previous measurements made by Gonsalves et al. [J]. The observed longitudinal variations in the plasma channel parameters were not found to be significant enough to affect the injection process.

This thesis presents an investigation into inertial confinement fusion through mathematical models and computer simulations. Salient features affecting fusion are identified, in both energy absorption and fusion gains. Mathematical tools are applied to a directed investigation into plasma structure. Parameters such as these involved in electromagnetic energy absorption are identified first, and the next step is to model the immediate response of the plasma to this energy input, with a view to how this may be advantageous to initiating fusion. Models are developed that best suit plasma behaviour. The parameters are presented graphically against time and distance into a small plasma fuel pellet. It is noted how field density and ions form undulations through the plasma. Types of plasma fuels are discussed with regards to their key parameters. Computations are performed using the laser driven inertial energy option based on volume ignition with the natural adiabatic self-similarity compression and expansion hydrodynamics. The relative merits of each fuel are discussed against the parameters of density, volume and energy input versus fusion gains. / Master of Science (Hons)