Laser Heating of Magnetically Confined Plasmas for X-Ray Production.
Abstract
Quantitative experiments were carried out on laser heating magnetically confined neon and krypton plasma columns. Approximately 100 J in 50 nsec and up to 300 J in 500 nsec of 10.6 micrometers radiation was used to heat 5 mm diameter plasmas at 10 to the 18th power/cc electron densities to up to 200 eV electron temperatures. Intense soft radiation during the ionization process has limited heating wave propagation into the plasma column to a few centimeters, and restricted the 1 keV K-shell emission from He-like neon to several MW. A detailed hydrodynamic and atomic physics program developed for this project gives excellent agreement with the observed radiation levels. Approximately 10% conversion efficiencies of laser energies to 2 keV x-radiation are predicted at the highest conventional magnetic fields and 1 kJ laser energies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA043486
Entities
People
- Alan L. Hoffman
- Edward A. Crawford