Acquisition of equipment for low-density foam target production for ultra-high-intensity laser experiments
Abstract
Many compact laser-driven particle and gamma-ray sources require a specific target density range to achieve high efficiency. For ultra-high-intensity optical lasers, this density range falls between the densities that can be achieved using conventional gas and solid-density targets. This aspect necessitates the use of novel foam targets with mass densities between 10 mg-cm3 and 100 mg-cm3 and a sub-wavelength pore size. Even though such foam targets are commercially available, they are still custom-made, which makes them prohibitively expensive for experimental campaigns that involve hundreds of shots. The funds provided by this project will be used to purchase critical point drying equipment needed to produce our own foam targets. The supercritical dryer will enable us to create free-standing and mounted polymer and silica foams whose mass density is at least an order of magnitude lower than that for conventional plastic. This density range is exactly the range required for the PI s projects funded by AFOSR that are aimed at developing directed sources of particles and radiation using ultrahigh- intensity lasers. This is a relatively low-risk project, because the techniques for making low mass-density foams by drying aerogel solutions are known and available in the scientific literature. We will integrate the proposed project and education by providing students with invaluable training in target fabrication. The students will be involved in the entire process starting with making targets and culminating with the use of these targets for ultra-high-intensity laser experiments. Typically, the target fabrication is handled by a vendor, depriving students of developing a deeper understanding of the process and thus the internal target structure. By developing such an understanding, the students will be better prepared to tackle some of the open physics questions about target homogenization early in the laser-target interaction.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 05, 2025
- Source ID
- FA95502410075
Entities
People
- Alexey V Arefiev
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California, San Diego