Difference between relativistic petawatt-picosecond laser-plasma interaction and subrelativistic plasma-block generation

Abstract

Some preliminary views are presented to the topic “Fast High Density Plasma Blocks Driven by Picosecond Terawatt Lasers” of the UWS-International Workshop 1–4 December 2004 in Sydney, Australia, underlining the motivation to explain the difference between the relativistic and the subrelativistic effects of ps-laser pulse interaction with plasma at powers above TW. This refers to specifically selected experimental and theoretical presentations at the workshop containing results for explaining the differences but also the important applications for studies on the fast ignitor scheme for application on nuclear fusion energy. One of the aims with relativistic proton beams is to realize conditions of spark ignition, while the subrelativistic case implies the generation of fast plasma blocks eventually with the possibility to ignite a fusion flame in uncompressed solid DT fuel for a power station with high efficiency.