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A new method of spatially resolved single-shot absorption spectroscopy for an x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) pulse has been developed by using a dispersive spectrometer and an elliptical mirror to enhance the spatial resolution. As a demonstration, we performed x-ray absorption near-edge structure measurement of Cu with a pump–probe scheme combining an XFEL pulse and a high-power femtosecond laser pulse. In the experiment, changes of an absorption spectrum in a plasma generated with a laser shot were successfully observed. The method will be a powerful tool for experiments requiring a spatial resolution and/or a single-shot measurement, such as high energy density science using a high-power laser pulse.

An experimental platform using X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses with high-intensity optical laser pulses is open for early users' experiments at the SACLA XFEL facility after completion of the commissioning. The combination of the hard XFEL and the high-intensity laser provides capabilities to open new frontiers of laser-based high-energy-density science. During the commissioning phase, characterization of the XFEL and the laser at the platform has been carried out for the combinative utilization as well as the development of instruments and basic diagnostics for user experiments. An overview of the commissioning and the current capabilities of the experimental platform is presented.

We constructed a synchronized femtosecond optical laser system with spatiotemporal stabilization for pump-probe experiments at SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser (SACLA). Stabilization of output power and pointing has been achieved with a small fluctuation level of a few percent by controlling conditions of temperature and air-flow in the optical paths. A feedback system using a balanced optical-microwave phase detector (BOMPD) has been successfully realized to reduce jitter down to 50 fs. We demonstrated the temporal stability with a time-resolved X-ray diffraction measurement and observed the coherent phonon oscillation of the photo-excited Bi without the post-processing using the timing monitor.

We present the study of optical and spectral properties of radiation-induced stable point defects, known as color centers (CCs), in lithium fluoride (LiF) for the detection of 10 keV XFEL beam at Spring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) in Japan. A thick LiF crystal was irradiated in four spots with 10 keV XFEL beam (pulse duration = 10 fs) with different number of accumulated shots. After irradiation the colored-LiF spots were characterized with an optical microscope in fluorescence mode and their photoluminescence intensity and spectra were analyzed.

Fast-ignition laser fusion involves directing an intense relativistic electron beam onto a fuel target. Experiments and simulations now enable a visualization of the location of fast electrons and the energy-coupling mechanisms at play.

Inubushi, Y.; Yabuuchi, T.; Togashi, T.; Sueda, K.; Miyanishi, K.; Tange, Y.; Ozaki, N.; Matsuoka, T.; Kodama, R.; Osaka, T.; Matsuyama, S.; Yamauchi, K.; Yumoto, H.; Koyama, T.; Ohashi, H.; Tono, K.; Yabashi, M. Development of an Experimental Platform for Combinative Use of an XFEL and a High-Power Nanosecond Laser. Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 2224. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10072224., We developed an experimental platform for combinative use of an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) and a high-power nanosecond laser. The main target of the platform is an investigation of matter under high-pressure states produced by a laser-shock compression. In this paper, we show details of the experimental platform, including XFEL parameters and the focusing optics, the laser irradiation system and X-ray diagnostics. As a demonstration of the high-power laser-pump XFEL-probe experiment, we performed an X-ray diffraction measurement. An in-situ single-shot X-ray diffraction pattern expands to a large angle side, which shows a corundum was compressed by laser irradiation.

Thermal reactions of materials heated by charged particles may lead to serious damage in a laser fusion reactor. When charged particles irradiate and heat the wall material with high intensity like at above 10 9 W/cm 2 , the material can be ablated. Once the wall is ablated, expanding gas or plasma can disturb the propagation of laser light irradiating the fuel target if it stagnates long enough for next laser shot. In order to understand the ablation dynamics in detail, we have performed 1-D hydro simulation to evaluate this ablation. As a new feature, we introduce the calculation of energy deposition by charged particles focusing on the interaction between ablated material and charged particles.

The dynamic fracture of tantalum is observed at the atomic scale using an x-ray monitoring technique at the SACLA XFEL facility., The understanding of fracture phenomena of a material at extremely high strain rates is a key issue for a wide variety of scientific research ranging from applied science and technological developments to fundamental science such as laser-matter interaction and geology. Despite its interest, its study relies on a fine multiscale description, in between the atomic scale and macroscopic processes, so far only achievable by large-scale atomic simulations. Direct ultrafast real-time monitoring of dynamic fracture (spallation) at the atomic lattice scale with picosecond time resolution was beyond the reach of experimental techniques. We show that the coupling between a high-power optical laser pump pulse and a femtosecond x-ray probe pulse generated by an x-ray free electron laser allows detection of the lattice dynamics in a tantalum foil at an ultrahigh strain rate of ε. ~2 × 108 to 3.5 × 108 s−1. A maximal density drop of 8 to 10%, associated with the onset of spallation at a spall strength of ~17 GPa, was directly measured using x-ray diffraction. The experimental results of density evolution agree well with large-scale atomistic simulations of shock wave propagation and fracture of the sample. Our experimental technique opens a new pathway to the investigation of ultrahigh strain-rate phenomena in materials at the atomic scale, including high-speed crack dynamics and stress-induced solid-solid phase transitions.

This article reports the progress in the beamlines at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA). The beamline optical and diagnostics systems have been upgraded to further accelerate the scientific applications of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). End-station instruments have also been developed to provide user-friendly experimental platforms which allow efficient data collection. Along with the upgrades of beamlines and experimental stations, we have established reliable and efficient procedures of the beamline operation.

Several plasma devices to control energetic electrons produced by ultra-intense lasers are studied. Cone targets guide the lasers and electrons, and enhance the generation of energetic electrons consequently. Plasma fibers confine and guide the energetic electrons, and lead an electron beam with very small spatial spread. Plasma lenses transport and collimate the energetic electrons into a very tiny spot. Grating plasmas give out Smith-Purcell radiations. The energy concentration brought by these energetic electrons in the methods of plasma photonics is improved more than 3 magnitudes compared to the simple plane targets, and new radiation source with tunable wavelength induced by energetic electrons is available.

We use one- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to demonstrate that the propagation of an ultraintense laser (I=10(19)W/cm(2)) in critical density plasma can be interfered with by a high density plasma wall region generated at the propagation front. When the electron flow speed of the wall region exceeds a certain relativistic threshold, the region behaves as an overdense plasma due to a decrease of the effective critical density. The region forms then very small overdense plasma islands. The islands impede the propagation intermittently and slow down the propagation speed significantly.

We experimentally studied relativistic laser propagation in preplasmas at the highest powers ever attempted-0.2 to 0.4petawatt. We demonstrated a single conical-shaped plasma channel formation extending several hundred microns in length from the under dense to over dense plasmas, indicating whole-beam self-focused laser channeling into the high-density plasma. The channel cone was reproduced by a three dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The confirmation of the relativistic laser channeling into high-density plasmas holds the promise of fast igniting a highly compressed fuel plasma core.

It is suggested that bulk acceleration of ions can occur in a target with density discontinuities when hot electrons are transported through the target. A foam target just belongs to such a kind of target, which is composed of irregular lamellar layers distributed randomly. To simplify the problem, we study the interaction of a high intensity laser pulse with a target consisting of regular micro-thin layers separated with a thickness of around a micrometre. Particle-in-cell simulations suggest that localized electrostatic fields with multi-peaks around the surfaces of the thin layers inside are induced when fast electrons produced are transported through such a target. These fields inhibit hot electron transport and simultaneously accelerate ions from the thin layers inside the target, forming a bulk acceleration in contrast to the surface acceleration at the front and rear sides of a thin solid target. Bulk acceleration can produce a large number of ions of moderate energy, which may be useful for applications such as fast ignition by fast protons. Experimental evidence of bulk acceleration is found with low-density foams irradiated by ultra-intense laser pulses.

Fast electron transport and spatial energy deposition are investigated in integrated cone-guided Fast Ignition experiments by measuring fast electron induced copper K-shell emission using a copper tracer added to deuterated plastic shells with a geometrically reentrant gold cone. Experiments were carried out at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics on the OMEGA/OMEGA-EP Laser where the plastic shells were imploded using 54 of the 60 OMEGA60 beams (3ω, 20 kJ), while the high intensity OMEGA-EP (BL2) beam (1 ω, 10 ps, 500 J, Ipeak > 1019 W/cm2) was focused onto the inner cone tip. A retrograde analysis using the hybrid-PIC electron transport code, ZUMA, is performed to examine the sensitivity of the copper Kα spatial profile on the laser-produced fast electrons, facilitating the optimization of new target point designs and laser configurations to improve the compressed core areal density by a factor of 4 and the fast electron energy coupling by a factor of 3.5.

It is demonstrated experimentally and by numerical simulations that the presence of a long-pulse-laser-created back plasma on the target backside can focus the relativistic electrons produced by short-pulse laser interaction with the front of a solid target. Comparing this to that without the back plasma, the number density of the fast electrons is increased by one order of magnitude, and their divergence angle is reduced fivefold. The effect is attributed to the absence of the backside sheath electric field and the collimation effect of the megagauss self-generated baroclinic magnetic field there. Such an acceleration scheme can be useful to applications requiring high-energy and charge-density electron bunches, such as fast ignition in inertial fusion.

Refluxing of fast electrons generated by high-intensity, short-pulse lasers was investigated by measuring electron-induced Kα x rays from a buried tracer layer. Using planar foils of Au/Cu/CH, the 150-J, 0.7-ps TITAN short-pulse laser was focused on the gold foil to generate fast electrons and the 3-ns, 300-J long pulse beam irradiated on the CH side to create expanding plasma as a conducting medium. By delaying the short-pulse beam timing from the long pulse laser irradiation, the plasma size was varied to change electron refluxing in the target rear. The total yields and two-dimensional images of 8.05-keV Cu-Kα x ray were recorded with an x-ray spectrometer and two monochromatic crystal imagers. The measurements show that the integrated yields decrease by a factor of 10 from refluxing to the nonrefluxing limit. Similar radial profiles of the Kα images in the rear were observed at all delays. Hybrid-particle-in-cell simulations using plasma profiles calculated by a radiation-hydrodynamic code HYDRA agree well with the measured Kα yields. The simulations suggest that conducting plasma with the size of ∼300 μm in the laser direction and ∼600 μm in the lateral direction at the density of 2 × 1020 1/cm3 is sufficiently large to prevent electrons from refluxing in the target. The parameters found in this study can be useful in designing experiments utilizing a Kα x-ray source in refluxing regime or a tracer layer in nonrefluxing regime.

High intensity laser propagation in plasmas is one of the key issues in fast ignition scheme of laser fusion energy. We have investigated experimentally and computationally the laser propagation in dense plasmas. The experiment demonstrates plasma channel formation and indicates laser propagation through overdense plamsas with relativistic self-focusing. The channel direction coincides with the laser axis. Two and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation reproduces the plasma channel and reveals that the laser propagation is dependent on the laser focus position in plasmas.

Since an imaging plate (IP) is sensitive to electron, ion, and x rays, it can be used as a detector for laser plasma experiment using ultraintense laser. Moreover, an IP has the advantageous features such as high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, and high spatial resolution. Even though IP itself has a considerable wide dynamic range up to 10(5), the IP data have appeared often saturated at an IP reading device. We propose a reading technique by inserting optical density filters so that an apparently saturated IP data can be saved.

We produced cylindrically imploded plasmas, which have the same density-radius product of the imploded plasma rhoR with the compressed core in the fast ignition experiment and demonstrated efficient fast heating of cylindrically imploded plasmas with an ultraintense laser light. The coupling efficiency from the laser to the imploded column was 14%-21%, implying strong collimation of energetic electrons over a distance of 300 microm of the plasma. Particle-in-cell simulation shows confinement of the energetic electrons by self-generated magnetic and electrostatic fields excited along the imploded plasmas, and the efficient fast heating in the compressed region.

${K}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ x-ray emission, extreme ultraviolet emission, and plasma imaging techniques have been used to diagnose energy transport patterns in copper foils ranging in thickness from 5 to $75\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ for intensities up to $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{20}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$. The ${K}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ emission and shadowgrams both indicate a larger divergence angle than that reported in the literature at lower intensities [R. Stephens et al., Phys. Rev. E 69, 066414 (2004)]. Foils $5\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ thick show triple-humped plasma expansion patterns at the back and front surfaces. Hybrid code modeling shows that this can be attributed to an increase in the mean energy of the fast electrons emitted at large radii, which only have sufficient energy to form a plasma in such thin targets.

We propose a foam cone-in-shell target design aiming at optimum hot electron production for the fast ignition. A thin low-density foam is proposed to cover the inner tip of a gold cone inserted in a fuel shell. An intense laser is then focused on the foam to generate hot electrons for the fast ignition. Element experiments demonstrate increased laser energy coupling efficiency into hot electrons without increasing the electron temperature and beam divergence with foam coated targets in comparison with solid targets. This may enhance the laser energy deposition in the compressed fuel plasma.

Isochoric heating by electrons has been measured in the two limiting cases of small area thin foils with dominant refluxing and cone-long-wire geometry with negligible refluxing in the wire. Imaging of Cu K alpha fluorescence, crystal x-ray spectroscopy of Cu K shell emission, and XUV imaging at 68eV and 256eV are discussed. Laser power on target was typically 0.5 PW in 0.7ps. Heating by focused proton beams generated at the concave inside surface of a hemi-shell and from a sub hemi-shell inside a 30 degrees cone has been studied with the same diagnostic methods plus imaging of proton induced K alpha. Conversion efficiency to protons has been measured and modeled. Conclusions from the experiments, links to theoretical understanding and relevance to fast ignition are outlined.

We report an experimental observation suggesting plasma channel formation by focusing a relativistic laser pulse into a long-scale-length preformed plasma. The channel direction coincides with the laser axis. Laser light transmittance measurement indicates laser channeling into the high-density plasma with relativistic self-focusing. A three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation reproduces the plasma channel and reveals that the collimated hot-electron beam is generated along the laser axis in the laser channeling. These findings hold the promising possibility of fast heating a dense fuel plasma with a relativistic laser pulse.

The development of ultra-intense lasers1 has facilitated new studies in laboratory astrophysics2 and high-density nuclear science3, including laser fusion4,5,6,7. Such research relies on the efficient generation of enormous numbers of high-energy charged particles. For example, laser–matter interactions at petawatt (1015 W) power levels can create pulses of MeV electrons8,9,10 with current densities as large as 1012 A cm-2. However, the divergence of these particle beams5 usually reduces the current density to a few times 106 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.

Energetic electrons and protons are observed when a target consisting of a reentrant cone with a disk at the tip is irradiated by a petawatt (PW) laser at an intensity of approximately ${10}^{19}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{W}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$. The angular distribution of the electrons and protons, dependent on the open angle of the reentrant cone, is found to differ from that in the case when a target with planar geometry is used. Two jet beams are observed, in directions parallel to the cone axis and normal to the cone-shaped wall. The number and cutoff energies of the generated protons are also related to the open angle of the cone. The efficiency of the generation of energetic electrons from the cone target is 2-3 times higher than that from a simple plane target. These results indicate a guiding of the PW laser beam in the cone geometry.

The characteristics of the forward hot electrons produced by subpicosecond laser-plasma interactions are studied for different laser polarizations at laser intensities from subrelativistic to relativistic. The peak of the hot electron beam produced by p-polarized laser beam shifts to the laser propagation direction from the target normal direction as the laser intensity reaches the relativistic. For s-polarized laser pulse, hot electrons are mainly directed to the laser axis direction. The temperature and the maximum energy of hot electrons are much higher than that expected by the empirical scaling law. The energy spectra of the hot electrons evolve to be a single-temperature structure at relativistic laser intensities from the two-temperature structure at subrelativistic intensities. For relativistic laser intensities, the forward hot electrons are less dependent on the laser polarization under the laser conditions. The existing of a preplasma formed by the laser amplified spontaneous emission pedestal plays an important role in the interaction. One-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reproduce the most characteristics observed in the experiment.

Plasma shielding is an important concept to study if the material damage could be suppressed with plasma layer properly prepared by absorbing the incoming plasma flux onto a divertor target in MFE or the first wall in IFE reactors. First experimental evidence of this effect is reported. Two plasma plumes (n∼ 1012/cm3, Te ∼ 1 eV) are created with two laser beams. The laser ablation plasma plumes are created at laser energy density up to 10 J/cm2 and are crossed each other. 12∼59 % of the incoming plasma particles are shielded with the collisions of the other plasma plume. By observing the material dependence of colliding effects, the effect to plasma shielding is discussed. c © 2012 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research

Relativistic electron motion in a plasma due to an intense laser pulse modifies the refractive index and leads to two effects: relativistic induced transparency and relativistic self-focusing. A combination of the above two effects enables transmission of laser energy deep into plasmas which is useful for fast ignition of inertial fusion. This so-called super-penetration sensitively depends on the focal position of the laser intensity due to the inhomogeneous density profile of the plasma and convergence of the laser pulse by final focusing optics. Experiments were conducted at vacuum focused laser intensities between 3.3 and 4. 4 × 1018 W cm−2 at peak plasma densities between 23 and 75nc, where nc is the critical density of the plasma. We introduced a scenario: the laser beam diameter at nc/4 density must be smaller than the plasma wavelength to achieve whole beam self-focusing. An optimum focus was found experimentally by measuring the plasma channel, laser transmittance and electron spectra. All three data are consistent with one another and numerical calculations based on a paraxial approximation model suggest that this optimum focus corresponds to the scenario described above.

We demonstrated efficient fast heating of a solid wire target attached on a hollow entrant cone target with an ultra-intense laser. The heating temperatures were 1.2-2.1 keV and the heated temperatures were independent of the wire length, implying strong collimation of high energy density electrons produced in an interaction of the ultra-intense laser light with the cone-wire target along the wire. The high energy density electrons propagated along the wire target with maintaining the high energy density of electrons.

In fast ignition for laser thermonuclear fusion, an ultra intense laser (UIL) pulse irradiates an imploded plasma in order to fast-heat a high-density core with hot electrons generated in laser-plasma interactions. An UIL pulse needs to make plasma channel via laser self-focusing and to propagate through the corona plasma to reach close enough to the core. Hot electrons are used for heating the core. Therefore the propagation of laser light in the high-density plasma region and spatial distribution of hot electron are important in issues in order to study the feasibility of this scheme. We measure the spatial distribution of hot electron when the laser light propagates into the high-density plasma region by self-focusing.

We studied the influence of electrostatic and magnetic fields at the rear surface of solid targets on the hot electron emission generated by ultra-intense laser pulses. The number of emitted electrons increases in experiments when a pre-plasma is created on the target rear surface. The formation of the electrostatic potential is clearly retarded in particle-in-cell simulations resulting in the elongation of time window for hot electron emission. The increase in the number of electrons is consistent with the Alfven current within the elongated time window.

Multi MeV proton beam is generated via target normal sheath acceleration when the target is irradiated with an ultra-intense laser pulse. In addition, a unique structure, “zonal pattern”, of energetic protons is observed in the perpendicular directions of the target edges using triangular targets. The sheath field production on the target edges may be responsible for this zonal pattern. Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the electrostatic field initially produced at around the cross point at the laser axis and the rear surface expands on the target surface in time. The field enhancement occurs at the target edges when the sheath field reaches there. The enhanced field can accelerate protons in a zonal pattern. c

We report an observation of surface acceleration of fast electrons in intense laser-plasma interactions. When a preformed plasma is presented in front of a solid target with a higher laser intensity, the emission direction of fast electrons is changed to the target surface direction from the laser and specular directions. This feature could be caused by the formation of a strong static magnetic field along the target surface which traps and holds fast electrons on the surface. In our experiment, the increase in the laser intensity due to relativistic self-focusing in plasma plays an important role for the formation. The strength of the magnetic field is calculated from the bent angle of the electrons, resulting in tens of percent of laser magnetic field, which agrees well with a two-dimensional particle-in-cell calculation. The strong surface current explains the high conversion efficiency on the cone-guided fast ignitor experiments.

We observe a hollow structure and a fine ring in the proton images from a petawatt scale laser interaction with a ``cone-fiber'' target. The protons related to the hollow structure are accelerated from the cone-tip surface and deflected later by a radial electric field surrounding the fiber. Those associated with the fine ring are accelerated from the fiber surface by this radial electric field. This field is found to decay exponentially within 3 ps from about $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{12}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{m}$. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations produce similar proton angular distributions.

Hot electrons and optical emission are measured from the rear surface of a metallic foil. The spectra of the optical emission in the near infrared region have a sharp spike around the wavelength of the incident laser pulse. The optical emission is ascribed to coherent transition radiation due to microbunching in the hot electron beam. It is found that the optical emission closely correlates with the hot electrons accelerated in resonance absorption.