Erica Garcia Badaracco Rose Hills
Analyzing Energy Loss in Laser-Plasma Interactions with Proton Imaging
An approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF), called indirect drive, uses lasers to heat the walls inside a gold cylinder (hohlraum) to produce a plasma, emitting x-rays in the process. These x-rays then irradiate the fuel at the center of the hohlraum and hopefully generate fusion conditions. A significant obstacle in ICF is understanding where unaccounted energy losses occur in order to optimize the conversion of laser to x-ray and, therefore, fusion energy. Plasma instabilities, and their consequential self-generated magnetic fields, are a possible source for these losses, since these fields create structures around laser spots and change how energy is deposited in a hohlraum target. Data on laser-plasma interactions from experiments conducted at the Orion (U.K.) and Omega (U.S.A.) laser facilities will be analyzed. The protons interact with the main plasma and experience deflections, before being imaged onto radiochromic film. From these images we can use proton tracking codes to give insight into the electromagnetic fields it experienced within the plasma, and therefore, energy transport within the plasma.
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