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The well-known ponderomotive force, arising from the interaction of matter and light, has critical implications across a broad range of fields from laser fusion and astrophysics to laser diagnostics and even pulsed-power experiments. This pseudo-potential pushes electrons, which through coulomb forces causes ion density modulations that can steepen with profound implications. When used intentionally, density modulations can be used for plasma gratings, which are essential for optical components operating in extreme conditions for next generation lasers. They can also be important for plasma confinement and particle trapping, which can even impact magnetic confinement in fusion devices. The ponderomotive potential also leads to laser self-focusing, complicating laser diagnostics. In laser fusion, the force exacerbates challenges posed by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and crossed beam energy transfer (CBET), both of which destabilize the fusion process. It even plays an astrophysical role in the filamentation of fast radio bursts in the relativistic winds of magnetars. Since the ponderomotive force primarily effects electron dynamics, multi-fluid/particle codes or additional ansatz are required to include its effects. This paper demonstrates that by including electron effects on an ion timescale with a 1-fluid, 2-energy extended magnetohydrodynamics (XMHD) model, ponderomotive effects are also naturally present. We introduce the theory for these dynamics and demonstrate their presence with 1-D pencil-like simulations.

Magnetic fields play an important role in plasma dynamics, yet it is a quantity difficult to measure accurately with physical probes, whose presence disturbs the very field they measure. The Faraday rotation of a polarized beam of light provides a mechanism to measure the magnetic field without disturbing the dynamics, and has been used with great success in astrophysics and high energy density plasma science, where physical probes cannot be used. However, the rotation is typically small, which degrades the accuracy of the measurement. Paradoxically, the main source of error is the probe beam itself. Since polarization cannot be measured directly, detectors rely on a polarizer to measure a small change in beam intensity instead. In this work, we show how suppress the beam intensity that is not part of the Faraday rotation signal by taking forming an optical derivative. Since the rotation measurement is now strictly proportional to the beam intensity, the system allows to amplify the rotation measurement simply by increasing the laser power.

Warm dense matter is a regime where Fermi degenerate electrons take an important role in the macroscopic properties of a material. While recent experiments hinged us closer to better understanding the unmagnetized processes in such dense materials, their magnetized counterpart has been more difficult to study since kilo-Tesla order magnetic fields are required. Although there are examples of field compression generating such fields by compressing pre-magnetized targets, this approach uses a closed configuration, where a converging liner compresses the magnetic flux dynamically. The plasma produced to compress the field is so dense that the fast-heating laser beam required to form warm dense matter cannot penetrate where the field is the highest. In this paper, numerical simulations are used to show that magnetic field compression is also possible by shining the laser beams onto the inner surface of the target, rather than on the outer surface. This approach relies on field compression done by a low-density high-temperature plasma, rather than a high-density low-temperature plasma, used in the more conventional approach. With this novel configuration, the region of the large magnetic field is now mostly free of plasma so the heating beam can reach the sample, located where the magnetic field is the strongest.

High-power lasers are at the forefront of science in many domains. While their fields are still far from reaching the Schwinger limit, they have been used in extreme regimes, to successfully accelerate particles at high energies, or to reproduce phenomena observed in astrophysical settings. However, our understanding of laser plasma interactions is limited by numerical simulations, which are very expensive to run as short temporal and spatial scales need to be resolved explicitly. Under such circumstances, a non-collisional approach to model laser-plasma interactions becomes numerically expensive. Even a collisional approach, modeling the electrons and ions as independent fluids, is slow in practice. In both cases, the limitation comes from a direct computation of electron motion. In this work, we show how the generalized Ohm's law captures collisional absorption phenomena through the macroscopic interactions of laser fields, electron flows, and ion dynamics. This approach replicates several features usually associated with explicit electron motion, such as cut-off density, reflection and absorption. As the electron dynamics is now solved implicitly, the spatial and temporal scales of this model fit well between multi-fluid and standard magnetohydrodynamics scales, allowing to study a new class of problems that would be too expensive to solve numerically with other methods.

This paper shows analytically and numerically that a vortex plate coupled to a neutral density filter can deliver a true optical derivative when placed at the focal plane of a $2f$ lens pair. This technique turns spatial variations in intensity into an intensity, which square root is the spatial derivative of the initial intensity variation. More surprisingly, it also turns any spatial variations in phase into an intensity, which square root is the spatial derivative of the initial phase variation. Since the optical derivative drops the DC component of the signal, it is possible to measure the full electron plasma turbulence spectrum optically, without using any interferometer.

Interferometry can measure the shape or the material density of a system that could not be measured otherwise by recording the difference between the phase change of a signal and a reference phase. This difference is always between $-\pi$ and $\pi$ while it is the absolute phase that is required to get a true measurement. There is a long history of methods designed to recover accurately this phase from the phase "wrapped" inside $]-\pi,\pi]$. However, noise and under-sampling limit the effectiveness of most techniques and require highly sophisticated algorithms that can process imperfect measurements. Ultimately, analysing successfully an interferogram amounts to pattern recognition, a task where radial basis function neural networks truly excel at. The proposed neural network is designed to unwrap the phase from two-dimensional interferograms, where aliasing, stemming from under-resolved regions, and noise levels are significant. The neural network can be trained in parallel and in three stages, using gradient-based supervised learning. Parallelism allows to handle relatively large data sets, but requires a supplemental step to synchronized the fully unwrapped phase across the different networks.

This paper presents the conceptual design of a high-voltage pulser intended to generate 30-T magnetic fields for magneto-inertial fusion experiments at the OMEGA facility. The pulser uses a custom capacitor bank and two externally triggered spark gaps to drive a multi-turn coil. This new high-voltage pulser is capable of storing 10 times more energy than the previous system, using a higher charge voltage (from 20 to 30 kV) and a larger capacitance (from 1 {\mu}F to 5 {\mu}F). Circuit simulations show that this pulser can deliver 100 kA into a 60-nH, 14-m{\Omega} coil with a rise time of 1 {\mu}s. For a coil with 2 turns with an average coil diameter of 7.8 mm, this current translates into a 32-T peak magnetic field at coil center. This is a factor of three increase in the peak magnetic field compared to the present generator magnetic field capabilities.

Intense magnetic fields modify the properties of extremely dense matter via complex processes that call for precise measurements in very harsh conditions. This endeavor becomes even more challenging because the generation of mega-gauss fields in a laboratory is far from trivial. This paper presents a unique and compact approach to generate fields above 2 mega-gauss in less than 150 ns, inside a volume close to half a cubic centimeter. Magnetic insulation, keeping plasma ablation close to the wire surface, and mechanical inertia, limiting coil motion throughout the current discharge, enable the generation of intense magnetic fields where the shape of the conductor controls the field topology with exquisite precision and versatility, limiting the need for mapping exactly magnetic fields.

Warm dense matter is present at the heart of gas giants and large exo-planets. Yet, its most basic properties are unknown and limit our understanding of planetary formation and evolution. In this state, where pressure climbs above 1 Mbar, matter is strongly coupled and quantum degenerate. This combination invalidates most theories capable of predicting the equation of state, the viscosity or heat conductivity of the material. When such properties are missing, understanding planetary evolution becomes an arduous endeavor. Henceforth, research in this field is actively growing, using high power laser or heavy ion beams to produce samples dense enough to overcome the 1 Mbar limit. These samples are not actively confined and tend to expand rapidly, precluding the existence of any thermodynamically stable equilibrium. However, a mega-ampere-class pulsed-power generator can produce confined matter in the Mbar range, providing two conditions are being met. First, the sample needs to be compressed cylindrically, to maximize magnetic pressure (compared to slab compression). Second, a damper must be used to preclude the formation of a corona around the sample. This corona robs the main sample from valuable current and limits the homogeneity of the compression. According to numerical simulations, the setup proposed here, and called a magnetic anvil cell, can reach pressure on the order of 1 Mbar using a mega-ampere pulsed power driver. These samples span several millimeters in length. Unlike diamond anvil cell, which pressure is limited below 1 Mbar due to materials strength, the magnetic anvil cell has virtually no pressure limit. Further, the current heats the sample to several eV, a temperature well beyond diamond anvil cell capabilities.

MagLIF is a fairly new fusion concept using a puled-power generator as the main driver. This concept uses a Z-pinch configuration where the implosion is driven by the Z-machine using 27 MA of electrical current in 100 ns. Since the implosion time is long compared to the heat diffusion time of a non-magnetized plasma, MagLIF requires an initial axial magnetic of 30T to reduce heat losses to the liner wall. Since the field needs to penetrate the transmission lines of the pulsed-power generator, as well as the liner itself, the rise time must exceed tens of microseconds. Any coil capable of producing such field on that long a pulse-length is inevitably bulky. The space required to house the coil near the liner increase the inductance of the load, which becomes problematic since the voltage at the load cannot exceed what the driver can already provide. Yet, the enormous amount of current that the Z-machine can provide could be used to produce the required 30 T by tilting the current posts surrounding the liner. However, the field penetration is limited by the skin effect of the liner wall. This paper shows that when current densities are large enough, the material generate resistivity gradients which forces the current to diffusive across the liner wall much fast than the skin time. As a result, the 30T coil can be eliminated and replaced by return current posts with minimal helicity.

The plasma beta, ratio of kinetic to magnetic pressure, inside a tokamak should stay below the Troyon limit to avoid major plasma instabilities. However, this paper argues that Troyon limit occurs only when current profiles cannot sustain high beta equilibria. This paper shows that plasmas with peak beta on the order of unity are stable to ideal MHD modes. While the theoretical (ideal-MHD) stability of unity beta equilibrium has been resolved, the experimental existence of high beta equilibria in tokamaks remains an unsolved problem of plasma physics.

The Hall term has often been neglected in MHD codes as it is difficult to compute. Nevertheless setting it aside for numerical reasons led to ignoring it altogether. This is especially problematic when dealing with tokamak physics as the Hall term cannot be neglected as this paper shows.

In recent years, our understanding of high energy density plasmas has played an important role in improving inertial fusion confinement and in emerging new fields of physics, such as laboratory astrophysics. Every new idea required developing innovative experimental platforms at high power laser facilities, such as OMEGA or NIF. These facilities, designed to focus all their beams onto spherical targets or hohlraum windows, are now required to shine them on more complex targets. While the pointing on planar geometries is relatively straightforward, it becomes problematic for cylindrical targets, or target with more complex geometries. This publication describes how the distribution of laser beams on a cylindrical target can be done simply by using a set of physical laws as a pointing procedure. The advantage of the method is threefold. First, it is straightforward, requiring no mathematical enterprise besides solving ordinary differential equations. Second, it will converge if a local optimum exists. Finally, it is computationally inexpensive. Experimental results show that this approach produces a geometrical beam distribution that yields cylindrically symmetric implosions.

Warm dense matter is difficult to generate since it corresponds to a state of matter which pressure is order of magnitude larger than can be handled by natural materials. A diamond anvil can be used to pressurize matter up to one Gbar, this matter is at high density but at room temperature. High power lasers and heavy ion beams can generate warm dense matter but they cannot confine it long enough to allow measurements of quasi-static transport coefficients such as viscosity or heat conduction. We present here a third method to generate warm dense matter. It uses a pulsed-power driver which current rise time is substantially shortened by using a plasma opening switch, limiting the development of electrothermal instabilities. The switch relies on the implosion of a gas puff Z-pinch which carries most of the discharge current until the pinch reaches the sample. After that, the sample is compressed until it reaches the warm dense matter regime. Three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics computations show that if the density of the gas is low enough no detectable instabilities (e.g. kinks and sausages modes) impede the remainder of the implosion.

Using a 1-MA, 100ns-rise-time pulsed power generator, radial foil configurations can produce strongly collimated plasma jets. The resulting jets have electron densities on the order of 10^20 cm^-3, temperatures above 50 eV and plasma velocities on the order of 100 km/s, giving Reynolds numbers of the order of 10^3, magnetic Reynolds and P\'eclet numbers on the order of 1. While Hall physics does not dominate jet dynamics due to the large particle density and flow inside, it strongly impacts flows in the jet periphery where plasma density is low. As a result, Hall physics affects indirectly the geometrical shape of the jet and its density profile. The comparison between experiments and numerical simulations demonstrates that the Hall term enhances the jet density when the plasma current flows away from the jet compared to the case where the plasma current flows towards it.

A new approach to high pressure magnetically-confined plasmas is necessary to design efficient fusion devices. This paper presents an equilibrium combining two solutions of the Grad-Shafranov equation, which describes the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium in toroidal geometry. The outer equilibrium is paramagnetic and confines the inner equilibrium, whose strong diamagnetism permits to balance large pressure gradients. The existence of both equilibria in the same volume yields a dual equilibrium structure. Their combination also improves free-boundary mode stability.