Scaling Hot-Electron Generation to High-Power, Kilojoule-Class Lasers 75 nm 75 75 5 nm 3 copper target Normalized K b /K a 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 Cold material 1 ps 10 ps 0.2 10 3 10 4 Heating 2.1 kj, 10 ps 10 5 Laser energy (J)/ target volume (mm 3 ) 0 100 150 200 Weighted temperature (ev) P. M. Nilson Fusion Science Center for Extreme States of Matter and Laboratory for Laser Energetics University of Rochester 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Chicago, IL 8 12 November 2010
Summary OMEGA EP experiments show constant energy coupling efficiency to relativistic electrons from 1 J, 1 ps to 2.1 kj, 10 ps The energy-conversion efficiency h L e into hot electrons is important for fast ignition and various HEDP applications Solid targets were irradiated over a wide range of laser parameters laser intensity: >10 18 W/cm 2 laser energy: 1 J to 2.1 kj laser-pulse duration: 1 to 10 ps Target heating reduces the K b to K a ratio at high-energy densities and is used to diagnose h L e An electron-refluxing model describes the dominant target physics Proton radiography verifies the formation of global target sheath fields h L e = 20±10% E19383
Collaborators R. Betti*, J. A. Delettrez, L. Gao, P. A. Jaanimagi, D. D. Meyerhofer*, J. F. Myatt, T. C. Sangster, A. Solodov*, C. Stoeckl, W. Theobald, B. Yaakobi, and J. D. Zuegel University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics A. J. MacKinnon and P. K. Patel Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, California K. Akli General Atomics, San Diego L. Willingale and K. M. Krushelnick CUOS, University of Michigan * Also Fusion Science Center for Extreme States of Matter and Fast-Ignition Physics, University of Rochester. Also Mechanical Engineering and Physics Department, University of Rochester.
Outline Fast-electron sources Characterizing h L e : the refluxing technique Target-heating experiments Target-charging experiments h L e scaling E19384
Motivation High-energy petawatt laser solid interactions generate powerful MeV electron sources Laser-Driven Radiography 1,2 Fast Ignition 3,4 Multikilojoule, 10 ps >10 18 W/cm 2 K a flash Thermal flash c flash Au cone e High-Z converter Single ignitor beam: 10 ps The energetic feasibility of these schemes relies on efficient energy coupling to hot electrons with 10-ps pulses. E18829a 1 M. D. Perry et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 265 (1999). 2 R. D. Edwards et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 2129 (2002). 3 M. Tabak et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1626 (1994). 4 M. H. Key et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 1966 (1998).
Experimental Method Fast-electron refluxing in mass-limited targets accesses high-temperature matter at solid density P BR K a K b Bremsstrahlung K-photon production Refluxing is caused by Debye-sheath field effects 1 5 20 to 500 nm 10 19 W/cm 2 Majority of fast electrons are stopped in the target Efficient radiators Debye sheaths ue q á 10 12 V/m 2 to 20 nm Fastest electrons escape K a, K b thermal emission No fluor layers E16142i Fast-electron calorimeter 1 S. P. Hatchett et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 2076 (2000). 2 R. A. Snavely et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2945 (2000). 3 W. Theobald et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 043102 (2006). 4 J. Myatt et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 055301 (2007). 5 P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev, E 79, 016406 (2009).
Experimental Method Most of the hot-electron energy goes to bulk target heating Peak intensity I = 7 10 18 W/cm 2 10-ps (FWHM) Gaussian 20-nm-thick Cu target 0.5-nm-thick, 1-g/cc CH (C 4+ and H + ) CH layers are not depleted during the simulation Energy deposition 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 Total injected electron energy Electron energy deposited in Cu Energy transfer to C and H ions 0.0 0 5 10 15 20 Instantaneous hot-electron energy Time (ps) K-photon generation is modified by high thermal-electron temperatures. E18900a
Experimental Method The bulk thermal-electron temperature is measured by the ratio of K b to K a K-fluorescence within solid targets diagnoses intense-energy coupling to hot electrons Inelastic electron electron collisions heat the target T e > 100 ev causes significant M-shell depletion Target heating is inferred from K b /K a h L e is found by comparison with simulations N M L K a (L8.05 kev) K Copper energy levels Ionization Depleted population K b (L8.91 kev) E16143v P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev, E 79, 016406 (2009). G. Gregori et al., Contrib. Plasma Phys. 45, 284 (2005). J. Myatt et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 056301 (2007).
K-photon Spectroscopy OMEGA EP experiments were performed with up to 2.1-kJ, 10-ps laser pulses X-ray pinhole camera Ultrafast x-ray streak camera Single-photon counting spectrometer 14 m HOPG spectrometer (2) Proton activation pack HOPG spectrometer (1) OMEGA EP Target Chamber E18415b Laser intensities I ~ 5 10 18 W/cm 2 Copper-foil targets Target volumes: 500 500 50 nm 3 to 75 75 5 nm 3
K-photon Spectroscopy The effect of bulk target heating on the K-shell emission spectrum is observed with OMEGA EP TVS PHC TVS PHC Number of pixels 150 100 50 0 K a He a Ly a Kb 500 nm 7 8 9 10 Energy (ev) Target volume: 500 500 20 nm 3 Laser: 1049 J, 10 ps Energy density: 2 10 5 J/mm 3 80 60 40 He a K a 20 Ly a K b 0 7 8 9 10 Energy (ev) Target volume: 75 75 5 nm 3 Laser: 1042 J, 10 ps Energy density: 4 10 7 J/mm 3 75 nm E18445c
h L e Scaling Intense-energy coupling to electrons is independent of laser energy and laser-pulse duration 1.2 Normalized K b /K a 1.0 0.8 0.6 Cold material Heating 0.4 1 ps 200 0.2 10 3 10 4 10 5 Laser energy (J)/ target volume (mm 3 ) Laser intensity: >10 18 W/cm 2 Laser energy: 1 to 5 J Laser-pulse duration: 1 ps 0 100 150 Weighted temperature (ev) E19385 P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev. E 79, 016406 (2009).
h L e Scaling Intense-energy coupling to electrons is independent of laser energy and laser-pulse duration 1.2 Normalized K b /K a 1.0 0.8 0.6 Cold material Heating 0.4 1 ps 10 ps 200 0.2 10 3 10 4 10 5 Laser energy (J)/ target volume (mm 3 ) Laser intensity: >10 18 W/cm 2 Laser energy: 1 J to 2.1 kj Laser-pulse duration: 1 to 10 ps 0 100 150 Weighted temperature (ev) E19385 P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published). P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev. E 79, 016406 (2009).
h L e Scaling Intense-energy coupling to electrons is independent of laser energy and laser-pulse duration Normalized K b /K a 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 Cold material Heating 2.1 kj, 10 ps 0.4 1 ps 10 ps 200 0.2 10 3 10 4 10 5 Laser energy (J)/ target volume (mm 3 ) Laser intensity: >10 18 W/cm 2 Laser energy: 1 J to 2.1 kj Laser-pulse duration: 1 to 10 ps 0 100 150 Weighted temperature (ev) E19385 P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published). P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev. E 79, 016406 (2009).
h L e Scaling Spatial and temporal variations in heating must be considered when calculating K b /K a LSP* calculates target heating Fast-electron source is prescribed with varying energy Full target volume and interaction time scale are modeled Assumes a Thomas Fermi EOS model Calculates EM fields selfconsistently accounts for refluxing Emission probability is calculated using the local temperature at the time of emission Probability multiplier 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 p Kb PrismSPECT** calculates ion-population distribution p Ka 0.0 0 500 1000 1500 Temperature (ev) E16038a * D. Welch et al., Nucl. Inst. Methods Res. A 464, 134 (2001). ** Prism Computational Sciences, Inc., Madison, WI 53711
h L e Scaling The laser-electron conversion efficiency h L e is independent of target energy density Target-heating calculations reproduce the experimental K b /K a trend Confirms the dominant target physics is being correctly accounted for Energy-conversion efficiency offset due to high-energy proton acceleration is assumed to be small Normalized K b /K a 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 10 3 h L e = 30% 1 ps 10 ps 10 4 10 5 h L e = 10% Laser energy (J)/ target volume (mm 3 ) 0 100 150 200 Weighted temperature (ev) (h L e ) min = 20±10% E19128a P. M. Nilson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. to be published.
h L e Scaling Nuclear activation of copper-film stacks determines the energy spectrum of the forward-accelerated protons Reaction-energy threshold: 4 to 6 MeV 63 Cu (p,n) 63 Zn Laser spot OMEGA EP Laminar proton source Half-life: tens of minutes 511-keV annihilation gamma rays Response matrix method to recover the proton-energy spectrum Number of protons per MeV 10 13 10 12 10 11 10 10 10 9 Laser: 982 J, 10 ps Target: 500 500 20 nm 3 10 8 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Proton energy (MeV) Typically 2% to 3% of the laser energy is converted into fast protons. E18901a M. I. K. Santala et al., Phys. Lett. 78, 19 (2001). L. Gao (XO6.0001)
Target Charging Proton radiography is used to verify the sheath model Film pack Primary foil 3 to 20 nm Cu 1 kj, 10 ps 4-nm CH tamper Proton source foil 50 nm Cu <0.75 kj, 10 ps Single-shot, multiframe imaging is achieved with nm-scale spatial resolution and ps-scale temporal resolution. E18834a
Target Charging A fast-electron jet provides the primary target-charging mechanism Cu foil Fast-electron jet Proton front OMEGA EP Stalk 500 nm 500 nm t = t 0 t = t 0 + 7 ps t = t 0 + 14 ps Cu foil: 500 500 20 nm 3 Laser: 1 kj, 10 ps E18897c
Target Charging Sheath fields form at the surface of thin-foil targets in two distinct phases E18898a Escaping electrons rear-surface sheath field accelerates protons in forward direction Refluxing electrons global target-sheath field initial point-like energy deposition accelerates protons into 4r Asymmetric collisionless expansion forward direction: 0.2 c rear direction: 0.4 c proton energies 40 MeV Integrating both components gives 3% to 4% conversion efficiency to energetic protons Distance (nm) 4 MeV 6 MeV 8 MeV 10 MeV 2000 1600 1200 800 400 14 MeV Rear direction 18 MeV Forward direction 0 5 10 15 20 Time (ps)
Summary/Conclusions OMEGA EP experiments show constant energy coupling efficiency to relativistic electrons from 1 J, 1 ps to 2.1 kj, 10 ps The energy-conversion efficiency h L e into hot electrons is important for fast ignition and various HEDP applications Solid targets were irradiated over a wide range of laser parameters laser intensity: >10 18 W/cm 2 laser energy: 1 J to 2.1 kj laser-pulse duration: 1 to 10 ps Target heating reduces the K b to K a ratio at high-energy densities and is used to diagnose h L e An electron-refluxing model describes the dominant target physics Proton radiography verifies the formation of global target sheath fields h L e = 20±10% E19383