An Investigation of Optimum Conditions for Laser-Plasma Production and Heating from Solid Deuterium Droplets for Inertially Confined Plasma Power Generation.

Abstract

The authors report theoretical and experimental work on the vaporization and heating of spherical overdense plasmas. Details of the required laser optics are described, together with charged particle, x-ray, and neutron diagnostics. A series of numerical experiments have been conducted to investigate the dynamics and neutron production in dense spherically symmetric plasmas. These have led to a development of scalings for energy absorption, shock strength and optimum neutron production. Similar numerical work has also been used to study the conversion of input laser radiation to output soft x-rays from an oxygen doped spherical laser plasma. The fast risetime of the calculated spectra suggests a method of producing a population inversion. Finally, the authors put forward one example of a breakeven configuration not requiring anomalous absorption. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 03, 1972
Accession Number
AD0748260

Entities

People

  • Edward B. Goldman
  • John M. Sources
  • Moshe J. Lubin
  • Thomas C. Bristow
  • Walter Leising

Organizations

  • University of Rochester

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Absorption
  • Charged Particles
  • Conversion
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Deuterium
  • Dynamics
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Inversion
  • Ionizing Radiation
  • Particles
  • Production
  • Radiation
  • Soft X Rays
  • Spectra
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy