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Since the first experimental campaign conducted in 2014 with mid field Gated X-ray Imager (GXI) and two quadruplets (20 kJ at 351 nm) focused on target, the Laser MegaJoule (LMJ) operational capability is still growing up. New plasma diagnostics have been implemented: a large field 2D GXI, two broadband x-ray spectrometers (called DMX and miniDMX), a specific soft x-ray spectrometer and a Laser Entrance Hole (LEH) imaging diagnostic. A series of experiments have been performed leading to more than 60 shots on target. We will present the plasma diagnostics development status conducted at CEA for experimental purpose. Several diagnostics are now under manufacturing or development which include a Streaked Soft X-ray Imager (SSXI), an Equation Of State (EOS) diagnostic suite (“EOS pack”), a Full Aperture BackScattering (FABS) diagnostic, a Near Backscattered Imager (NBI), a high resolution 2D GXI, a high resolution x-ray spectrometer, a specific set of two polar hard x-ray imagers for LEH characterization and a set of Neutron Time of Flight (NTOF) detectors. We describe here the diagnostics design and performances in terms of spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions. Their designs have taken into account the harsh environment (neutron yields, gamma rays, electromagnetic perturbations, debris and shrapnel) and the safety requirements.

We have measured points on the principal Hugoniot of lead, using the impedance-match method, at pressures of ~800 kbar using indirect laser drive. The experiments used laser-heated hohlraums to drive shocks into stepped targets. An active shock breakout diagnostic consisting of a ruby probe laser and optical streak camera detection system monitored target reflectivity—expected to vanish at shock breakout—and shock velocities were calculated from the target step heights and the measured shock transit times. Hugoniot point parameters were calculated from these shock velocities using the known equation-of-state (EOS) of the aluminium base and one step. Our results agree well with previous measurements made using gas-guns or explosively driven shocks, indicating that there are no intrinsic errors in laser-driven EOS experiments, such as those from using non-bulk material or spatial and temporal shock non-uniformity, and so supporting laser-driven EOS measurements at higher pressures.

If it is very difficult to dispose of a large number of experimental results to study complex astrophysical phenomena such as those involved in the explosion of supernovae, it has, however, already been shown that well-controlled experiments performed in the laboratory can reproduce some interesting features of these phenomena. Furthermore, it would be still more interesting if these experiments could also highlight events that are not yet well understood. We present here such an experimental attempt using laser-generated plasmas. The radiation phenomena that are referred to result from the interaction of the high-velocity supernova debris with the surrounding ambient plasma left over from the stellar wind of the supernovae progenitor.

This paper presents the first experimental evidence of the transverse localization of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) emission to the laser beam axis, demonstrating that only a few small regions of plasma contribute to the emission. As a consequence, SBS reflectivity of these regions is much higher than the average SBS reflectivity, by a factor of {approximately}50{endash} 100 . These observations are consistent with the recent concept of SBS growing mainly in active speckles, having an intensity higher than the average laser intensity. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

International audience; In 1948, P. Kirkpatrick and A. V. Baez developed an x-ray microscope (energy range about 100 eV-10 keV) composed of two concave spherical mirrors working at grazing incidence. That device, named KB microscope, presents a 3-5 μm resolution within a field having a radius about 100 μm; outside that field, its resolution lowers rapidly when the object point recedes from the center. The adjunction of two similar mirrors can notably increase the useful field (typically, the resolution can be better than 10 μm within a 2-mm-diam field of view), which is necessary for studying laser plasmas. Its main advantage with respect to more simple optics, as the pinhole, is that it can be located far enough from the plasma to avoid any destruction during the shot. We describe such a microscope that we call KBA microscope and present some images of fine metallic grids. Those grids were backlighted by x-raysources, either a cw one or a series of laser plasmas from the Octal-Héliotrope facility. Examining the films in detail shows that the experimental results are very close to the theoretical characteristics; hence the interest of this device for the x-raydiagnostics on the future powerful laser facilities.

B4C/W multilayer mirrors designed for an x‐ray beamline at the MEGAJOULE facility are susceptible to x‐ray damage. The OCTAL laser was implemented to generate a gold plasma with a continuous x‐ray spectrum (0.1 to 1.5 keV) used to irradiate the mirror. The fluence on the sample is 0.05 J/cm2 per shot. The pulse duration is about 1 ns. The temporally integrated spectrum reflected by the mirror is analyzed by a bent crystal spectrometer and recorded on photographic film. The spectral analysis suggests that an increase of the mean period of the multilayer happens during the second shot. This expansion is estimated to be 5% with respect to the unexposed mirror. After the second shot, destruction of the multilayer coating in the central part of the sample and irreversible damages in the other part characterized by a decrease of Bragg reflectivity have been observed.

We have measured and analyzed the second harmonic emission, both in the plane of the laser electric field and perpendicular to it, at several angles near 135° from the laser wave vector. The experiments used from 1 to 80 J of 1.053 μm light to irradiate carbon–hydrogen (CH) targets with a 550 ps pulse. A random phase plate was used, producing characteristic intensities in the range of 1013–1014 W/cm2. This was sufficient to drive the Ion Acoustic Decay Instability, producing Stokes emission well‐separated from the emission spike at the second harmonic of the laser frequency. The spectral structure of the Stokes emission was qualitatively similar for all intensities and angles of observation. The duration of the signals showed trends anticipated from linear theory. To explain the scaling of the signal strength and spectral width requires nonlinear theory.

Convergent ablation experiments with gas-filled rugby hohlraum were performed for the first time on the OMEGA laser facility. A time resolved 1D streaked radiography of capsule implosion is acquired in the direction perpendicular to hohlraum axis, whereas a 2D gated radiography is acquired at the same time along the hohlraum axis on a x-ray framing camera. The implosion trajectory has been measured for various kinds of uniformly doped ablators, including germanium-doped and silicon-doped polymers (CH), at two different doping fraction (2% and 4% at.). Our experiments aimed also at measuring the implosion performance of laminated capsules. A laminated ablator is constituted by thin alternate layers of un-doped and doped CH. It has been previously shown in planar geometry that laminated ablators could mitigate Rayleigh Taylor growth at ablation front. Our results confirm that the implosion of a capsule constituted with a uniform or laminated ablator behaves similarly, in accordance with post-shot simulations performed with the CEA hydrocode FCI2.

Second-harmonic emission during the interaction between a laser beam and an underdense preformed plasma has been studied simultaneously using time-resolved images as well as two-dimensional time-integrated images. The emission appeared with very localized structures in space and pulsed in time. These structures are consistent with the presence of filamentary structures whose presence has been confirmed by Schlieren diagnostic. The spatial dimensions of the observed second-harmonic emission is in agreement with the scale length of the filamentation instability. The characterization of second-harmonic emission appears to be a potential diagnostic for filamentation.

We report a study of upshifted and downshifted Raman backscattered light obtained from two different plasma configurations using a 0.53-μm laser pump. The results provide strong evidence of coupling between plasma waves generated by stimulated Raman scattering and ion waves caused by, or facilitating, stimulated Brillouin scattering

Signatures of filamentation have been observed in preformed plasmas using complementary diagnostics: time‐resolved images of the transmitted laser light, dark field imaging, and time‐resolved spectra of Raman light. This last diagnostic clearly shows the presence of small channels inside the plasma with temporal evolution in agreement with the formation of filaments. The filamentary structures disappeared when random phase plates were used in the laser beam. This result is in agreement with a theoretical analysis showing that filamentation does not grow when the speckle size is smaller than the perturbation wavelength which maximizes, in the coherent case, the filamentation growth.

Indirect-drive implosions experiments were conducted on the Omega Laser Facility to test the performance of uniformly doped plastic ablators for Inertial Confinement Fusion. The first convergent ablation measurements in gas-filled rugby hohlraums are reported. Ignition relevant limb velocities in the range from 150 to 300 μm.ns−1 have been reached by varying the laser drive energy and the initial capsule aspect ratio. The measured capsule trajectory and implosion velocity are in good agreement with 2D integrated simulations and a zero-dimensional modeling of the implosions. We demonstrate experimentally the scaling law for the maximum implosion velocity predicted by the improved rocket model [Y. Saillard, Nucl. Fusion 46, 1017 (2006)] in the high-ablation regime case.

In order for brominated plastic (CHBr) to be used in future large lasers, such as the National Ignition Facility, capsule design, and equation of state (EOS) data are needed to address uncertainties in modeling. We have performed CHBr EOS measurements using the impedance matching technique. Laser beams spatially smoothed, and giving a spot size of 400 μm and intensities ⩽5×1013 W/cm2, produced high-quality shock waves allowing the simultaneous measurements of the shock velocities in two materials, one used as reference. Results are compared to other experiments and to EOS calculations. We obtained very good agreement with the theoretical curve for pressures ranging from 1 to 3 Mbar.

For the past few years AWE has been pursuing a programme of principal Hugoniot EOS measurements on metals and plastics at multi‐Mbar pressures. Recently we have decided to concentrate on measurements on lead by a number of different techniques to cover as much of the EOS parameter space as possible. Using the HELEN laser we have made more Hugoniot measurements from ∼800kbar to ∼10Mbar. We have also performed isentropic compression experiments up to ∼1Mbar using the Sandia National Laboratory’s Z machine. These were on single‐crystal and bulk lead and a lead‐antimony alloy. These complementary experiments allow us to compare single‐crystal, bulk and alloyed materials, to compare Hugoniots and isentropes at 1Mbar and to compare laser‐driven experiments with existing gas‐gun and explosively driven data at low pressures. This presentation will describe these experiments and the results, with emphasis on the ways in which they are complemetary: how one measurement can verify another, how techniques and diagnostics carry‐over, and the ways in which one method can provide data not possible from another.