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International audience; Type-III-burst radio signals can be mimicked in the laboratory via laser-plasma interaction. Instead of an electron beam generating Langmuir waves (LW) in the interplanetary medium, the LWs are created by a laser interacting with a millimeter-sized plasma through the stimulated Raman instability. In both cases, the LWs feed the Langmuir decay instability which scatters them in several directions. The resulting LWs may couple to form electromagnetic emission at twice the plasma frequency, which has been detected in the interplanetary medium, and recently in a laboratory laser experiment [Marquès et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 135001 (2020)]. This article presents the first numerical analysis of this laser configuration using particle-in-cell simulations, providing details on the wave spectra that are too difficult to measure in experiments. The role of some parameters is addressed, with a focus on laser intensity, in order to illustrate the behavior of the electromagnetic emission's angular distribution and polarization.

A new experimental platform based on laser-plasma interaction is proposed to explore the fundamental processes of wave coupling at the origin of interplanetary radio emissions. It is applied to the study of electromagnetic (EM) emission at twice the plasma frequency ($2\omega_p$) observed during solar bursts and thought to result from the coalescence of two Langmuir waves (LWs). In the interplanetary medium, the first LW is excited by electron beams, while the second is generated by electrostatic decay of Langmuir waves. In the present experiment, instead of an electron beam, an energetic laser propagating through a plasma excites the primary LW, with characteristics close to those at near-Earth orbit. The EM radiation at $2\omega_p$ is observed at different angles. Its intensity, spectral evolution and polarization confirm the LW-coalescence scenario., Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

The direct and indirect drive schemes for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) make use of a large number of laser beams arranged in a symmetric angular distribution. The preferential decay geometry of the three waves resonant couplings, mainly responsible for backscattered light in single beam experiments, may then be deeply modified in the region of crossing beams where collective laser plasma instabilities could develop. Such instabilities can occur for laser beams having a common symmetry axis along which they drive a common daughter wave. The collective coupling results in an increase of the growth gain with the increase of the number of interacting beams and produce energy losses in new backward directions. We have taken advantage of the multiple beams of the Omega laser facility and of its large battery of diagnostics to study the physics related to this multiple beams interaction in the regimes of high temperature plasmas relevant of the direct and indirect drive schemes to ICF. Experiments performed in a planar open geometry have evidenced the large amplification of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) electromagnetic waves almost transverse to the density gradient as theoretically predicted 40 years ago. This was achieved in long scale-length high-temperature plasmas in which two beams couple to the same scattered electromagnetic wave further demonstrating this multiple-beams collective SRS interaction. The collective nature of the coupling and the amplification at large angles from the density gradient increase the global SRS losses and produce light scattered in novel directions out of the planes of incidence of the beams. Indirect drive experiments were performed in rugby ball shaped Hohlraum irradiated by 40 beams. Large instantaneous (peak reflectivity >30%) Brillouin sidescattering was evidenced to originate from the collective Brillouin amplification of a shared ion acoustic wave driven along the Hohlraum axis by a cone of 10 beams. In this paper, the scattering geometry is detailed for the two types of collective instabilities showing that they produce light scattered in novel very precise directions located far from the original aperture of the beams where the diagnostics are usually set-up. This scattered light could be measured on Omega thanks to the flexibility of the facility. Key features of the light scattered by collective instabilities are identified that would allow to recognize their signatures in more complex, less diagnosed experiments.

The laser facilities designed to realize laser inertial confinement thermonuclear fusion experiments use numerous laser beams in order to meet irradiation symmetry constraints and to deposite enough energy in matter. Unfortunately, the crossing of laser beams in plasmas modifies their propagations. When a beam is propagating in plasmas, it can interact with ion acoustic waves and scatter its energy by stimulated Brillouin scattering. Not only the directions but also the levels of these scatterings are modified when beams are crossing one another in plasmas. This manuscript is about the experimental study of two kinds of multiple-beam modification:- the flexibility of the LULI2000 laser facility (Laboratoire d'Utilisation de Lasers Intenses, Palaiseau, France) enabled us to study crossed-beam energy transfer between two and three beams;- the sixty laser beams available on the OMEGA facility (Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, United-States) enabled us to observe scattering of collective Brillouin instabilities produced in planar geometries and at the entrance hole of cavities of fusion experiments.These two mecanisms can highly modify the initial laser irradiation by transferring up to 30% of the laser energy between beams and by scattering more than 10% of the laser energy in unusual directions., Les installations laser dimensionnées pour réaliser des expériences de fusion thermonucléaire par confinement inertiel laser utilisent de nombreux faisceaux laser pour répondre à des contraintes de symétrie d'irradiation et pour déposer suffisamment d'énergie dans la matière. Malheureusement, le croisement des faisceaux laser dans un plasma impactent leurs propagations. Quand un faisceau laser se propage dans un plasma, il peut se coupler aux ondes acoustiques ioniques et diffuser une fraction importante de son énergie par diffusion Brillouin stimulée. Aussi bien les niveaux que les directions de ces diffusions sont profondément modifiés lorsque les faisceaux laser se croisent. Ce manuscrit présente l'étude expérimentale de deux types de modification multi-faisceaux :- en utilisant la flexibilité de l'installation laser LULI2000 (Laboratoire d'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, Palaiseau, France), nous avons étudié le transfert d'énergie entre deux et trois faisceaux laser ;- les soixante faisceaux laser de l'installation OMEGA (Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, Etats-Unis) nous ont permis d'observer les diffusions produites par des instabilités Brillouin collectives dans des plasmas plans en géométrie ouverte et à l'entrée de cavités d'expériences de fusion.Ces deux mécanismes peuvent drastiquement redistribuer l'énergie laser incidente en échangeant jusqu’à 30% de l'énergie entre les faisceaux ou en diffusant plus de 10% de l'énergie laser dans des directions inhabituelles.