mJ Laser Pulses Research Articles

Fast neutron generation with few-cycle, relativistic laser pulses at 1 Hz repetition rate

Laser-driven deuterons generate neutrons with a mean energy of 2.5 MeV, through the 2H(d,n) fusion reaction in a deuterated polyethylene (dPE) tablet. The deuterium ions are accelerated by 12 fs, 21 mJ laser pulses interacting with a 0.2 µm thin dPE foil at a peak intensity of 1018 W/cm2. The laser was operated at 1 Hz repetition rate in bursts of 75 shots. The interaction was characterized and recorded for each laser shot. The ion spectra were measured in the forward and backward directions by Thomson ion spectrometers. Neutron events were detected by a time-of-flight (ToF) system consisting of four plastic scintillators positioned at various angles around the experimental chamber. The maximum cut-off energy of the forward accelerated protons and deuterons was close to 1.4 MeV and 1 MeV, while the mean values are 428 ± 63 keV and 433 ± 80 keV, respectively. Analysis of ToF distributions from 3128 shots resulted in an average yield of 1142 ± 59 neutrons per shot in the energy range of 1.5–4 MeV. The energy distribution of forward-directed neutrons peaks between 3 and 3.5 MeV. Angular dependence analysis showed a perpendicular minimum and a maximum along the deuteron beam, consistent with the expected distribution from the literature and our simulation results.

An inverse free electron laser-bunching driven shallow-angle superradiant Compton source

A coherent soft x-ray Compton source driven by a density modulated electron beam is investigated. The density modulation is attained by an inverse free electron laser prebuncher, which offers strong energy modulation at the relevant beam energies for Compton scattering in an shallow-angle oblique scattering geometry using relatively low laser beam power. In particular, we study the case of a 101.7 MeV electron beam produced by a state-of-the-art high brightness accelerator beamline. Calculations show that 1011 coherent soft x-ray photons per second can be generated in an ultra-narrow relative bandwidth of 0.002% from a 250 pC microbunched electron bunch colliding with a 23 mJ laser pulse at 10 kHz.

Commissioning of the ThomX Storage Ring

We will report on the ongoing ThomX ring commissioning, its status, its main challenges, our results and our planning. ThomX is a compact Compton-based X-ray source under commissioning at IJCLab in Orsay (France). This facility is composed of a 50-70 MeV linac, a transfer line and a storage ring whose circumference is 18 m. Compton scattering between the 50 MeV electron bunch of 1 nC and the 30 mJ laser pulses stacked in a Fabry-Perot cavity will result in the production of X-rays with energy ranging between 45 keV and 90 keV. We aim at a total flux of about 1013 X-rays per second. The injector commissioning started in the spring of 2021. The ongoing storage ring commissioning faces many challenges due to the rings low energy, its compactness, its non-linear beam dynamics, the time-limited beam storage and the need to achieve a very accurate and stable geometry of the collision region between the laser pulses and the electron bunch. The commissioning and operational experience is of great importance for the future Compton sources.

Nanoscatterer-Assisted Fluorescence Amplification Technique.

Weak fluorescence signals, which are important in research and applications, are often masked by the background. Different amplification techniques are actively investigated. Here, a broadband, geometry-independent and flexible feedback scheme based on the random scattering of dielectric nanoparticles allows the amplification of a fluorescence signal by partial trapping of the radiation within the sample volume. Amplification of up to a factor of 40 is experimentally demonstrated in ultrapure water with dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles (30 to 50 nm in diameter) and fluorescein dye at 200 μmol concentration (pumped with 5 ns long, 3 mJ laser pulses at 490 nm). The measurements show a measurable reduction in linewidth at the emission peak, indicating that feedback-induced stimulated emission contributes to the large gain observed.

Synthesis AgO Nanoparticles by Nd:Yag Laser with Different Pulse Energies

One technique used to prepare nanoparticles material is Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid (PLAL), Silver Oxide nanoparticles (AgO) were prepared by using this technique, where silver target was submerged in ultra-pure water (UPW) at room temperature after that Nd:Yag laser which characteristics by 1064 nm wavelength, Q-switched, and 6ns pulse duration was used to irradiated silver target. This preparation method was used to study the effects of laser irradiation on Nanoparticles synthesized by used varying laser pulse energy 1000 mJ, 500 mJ, and 100 mJ, with 500 pulses each time on the particle size. Nanoparticles are characterized using XRD, SEM, AFM, and UV-Visible spectroscopy. All the structural peaks determined by the XRD test can be indexed as face-centered cubic (FCC) type, the stronger crystalline orientation is located in the (111) plane. The nanoscale particles have an almost spherical shape as inferred from the SEM images. In (1000) mJ laser pulse energy the best smallest particle size was produced. According to AFM results of all films, the particle size 32.45nm, 64.3nm, and 67.86nm respectively for 1000 mJ, 500 mJ, and 100 mJ , the surface roughness affected and increased as increase the laser energy because the increase particle size and aggregation of partials. UV-Visible spectroscopy measured the absorbance of the silver nanoparticle prepared which is increased as increase pulsed laser ablation energy at wavelength 440 nm.

Tungsten doped diamond shells for record neutron yield inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility

We report on fabrication and characterization of layered, tungsten doped, spherical about 2 mm diameter microcrystalline diamond ablator shells for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments at the National Ignition Facility. As previously reported, diamond ICF ablator shells can be fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on solid spherical silicon mandrels using an ellipsoidal microwave plasma reactor. In the present work, we further developed these ablator shells by embedding a W-doped diamond layer sandwiched between two undoped diamond regions. W incorporation in diamond was achieved by adding tungsten hexacarbonyl to the CH4/H2 CVD feed gas. We observe that the W doping concentration decreases with increasing deposition rate which, in turn, is controlled by adjusting the total gas pressure. Cross sectional microstructural analysis reveals sharp interfaces between doped and undoped regions of the diamond shell and uniform W distribution with concentrations up to about 0.3 at.%. At higher W concentrations (>0.3 at.%) formation of tungsten carbide precipitates is observed. Using a 3‐shock 1.6 MJ laser pulse, the targets described in this work produced the first laser driven implosion to break the 1 × 1016 neutron yield barrier, followed by experiments (described in future publications) with similar targets and slightly more laser energy producing yields as high as 4 × 1017.

Combination of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and time–of–flight mass spectrometry for the quantification of CoCrFeNiMo high entropy alloys

In this paper, we present the preparation and quantification of the CoCrFeNiMo high entropy alloys that are commonly used in self-propelled stainless steel fabrication, shipbuilding, and other defense industries. Four samples of high entropy alloys, Mo (68.03–77.29%)-Cr (5.24–7.37%)-Fe (5.63–7.92%)-Ni (5.91–8.32%)-Co (5.93–8.36%) were prepared using a standard technique. The as-prepared samples have been quantified by combining Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Laser Ablation Time–of–Flight Mass Spectrometer (LA–TOF–MS) techniques. The LIBS experiments were performed using the second harmonic of a Nd: YAG laser at 532 nm, 100 mJ laser pulse energy, and 5 ns pulse duration, and the emission spectra were registered in the wavelength range from 250 to 870 nm using a set of four miniature spectrometers. It is endorsed that the calibration-free LIBS (CF–LIBS) and the Calibration Curve–Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (CC–LIBS) techniques yield the elemental compositions at par with that determined by the LA–TOF–MS, and EDX techniques.

Optimization of Backscatter and Symmetry for Laser Fusion Experiments Using Multiple Tunable Wavelengths

A new additional wavelength-tuning capability has been implemented on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser allowing for unprecedented control of crossed-beam energy transfer (CBET) between all groups of beams for better performance of indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ignition experiments. In particular, this advance allows for negation and reversal of flow-induced CBET and the rebalancing of the intensity of different groups of beams within an indirect-drive (ICF) hohlraum. Experiments conducted at the NIF using a 1.1 MJ laser pulse with peak power of 390 TW demonstrate this high level of control through measurements of the precise changes to stimulated Brillouin scattering, typically driven by flow-induced CBET at the end of the pulse. Additionally, this new capability is shown to be able to predictably control gold-wall plasma expansion in the target driven by early-time flow-induced CBET. Estimates of early-time CBET from the wall expansion are shown to be consistent with simulation expectations. This new additional capability to control symmetry and backscatter expands the design space of current experiments and provides extra margin for increased laser energy in near-future experiments.

Improving the accuracy of high-repetition-rate LIBS based on laser ablation and scanning parameters optimization.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system based on high-repetition-rate microchip laser (HR-LIBS) has been widely used in elemental analysis due to its high energy stability, good portability and fast spectral acquisition speed. However, repeated ablation on powder pellets like soil and coal using HR-LIBS system encounters the problem of serious decline in measurement accuracy. In this work, the relationship between laser ablation and scanning parameters, their correlation with spectral intensity, as well as the optimization approach were fundamentally studied. The correlations among the crater overlapping rate, crater depth and spectral intensity were obtained. An HR-LIBS system with microchip laser (4 kHz repetition rate, 100 µJ laser pulse energy) to perform repeated scanning ablation was established. A theoretical model of the ablation crater morphology for repeated scanning ablation was developed. By taking soil pellets as the experimental samples, the linear fitting curves of crater depth and the spectral intensity ratio were established with the R2 of 0.90∼0.99. The experimental results showed that as the crater depth developed during repeated ablation, the Si-normalized spectral intensity decreased, and thus the spectral repeatability decreased. It was found that by optimizing the overlapping rate to form a flat crater bottom, the confinement effect of the crater on the plasma could be avoided. As a result, the spectral repeatability was significantly improved. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of Si-normalized spectral intensity was improved from 5% to 0.6%. Finally, repeated ablation was performed with the optimized overlapping rate on soil pellets. The R2 of calibration curves of Fe, Mg, Ca, and Al were all above 0.993, and the average RSDs were between 0.5% and 1%. This study provides a fast, accurate, and stable method for the analysis of the samples consisting of various materials with high heterogeneity.

Theoretical calculation and experimental verification of the vacuum thermal decomposition process of lunar silicon oxide

Thermal decomposition of oxides can be achieved at a lower temperature under vacuum condition. For In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), using the thermal decomposition method to obtain resources can avoid complex processing. This study, through thermodynamic equilibrium calculation found that oxides such as iron(II) oxide (FeO), and magnesium oxide (MgO), are easy to decompose. While oxides, such as silicon monoxide (SiO), titanium(II) oxide (TiO), etc., are difficult to decompose. Silicon dioxide (SiO2) is selected as the sample for the nanosecond laser experiment under a vacuum. Temperature simulation showed that a laser can give the sample high-temperature energy above 4700 K. Dynamic analysis showed that the sample undergoing complete plasma decomposition was the most thorough. The results of thermal decomposition of silicon monoxide is the most difficult to achieve. Under the conditions of 75 mJ laser pulse energy, 10−4 Pa initial vacuum, etc., the oxygen-silicon atom ratio of the products ranged from 1.74 to 0.12 and decreased with decreasing particle radius. Understanding the decomposition behavior of lunar surface oxides is crucial for the clean utilization of lunar surface resources. Moreover, it also provides a theoretical basis for high-temperature processing and element migration of airless objects.

A deep-UV picosecond laser for photocathode electron gun

We report a 10 Hz Yb:YAG laser regenerative amplifier with frequency conversion to 257.3 nm. A diode-pumped solid-state Yb:YAG laser oscillator is built as the seed of the system with output power up to 1.75 W. A chirp-volume-Bragg grating (CVBG) is used both as pulse stretcher and pulse compressor. A 10-Hz Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier is built which amplifies the seed pulses to 1.58 mJ. After pulse compression, 1.36 mJ laser pulses with 2.4 ps pulse duration are obtained. Good beam quality is maintained after the compressor. LBO and BBO crystals are cascaded in frequency convertor. At the final output, 120 μJ laser pulses at 257.3 nm are obtained. This system is designed as the driving source for photocathode electron guns in electron accelerator.

Carbon Nanoparticles Synthesis By Different Nd:Yag Laser Pulse Energy

One of the most important techniques for preparing nanoparticle material is Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid technique (PLAL). Carbon nanoparticles were prepared using PLAL, and the carbon target was immersed in Ultrapure water (UPW) then irradiated with Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) and six ns pulse duration. In this process, an Nd:YAG laser beam was focused near the carbon surface. Nanoparticles synthesized using laser irradiation were studied by observing the effects of varying incident laser pulse intensities (250, 500, 750, 1000) mJ on the particle size (20.52, 36.97, 48.72, and 61.53) nm, respectively. In addition, nanoparticles were characterized by means of the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) test, pH easurement, and an Electrical Conductivity (EC) test of the nano solution. The smallest particle size was produced with (250) mJ laser pulse energy.

Coupling of Sub-Terawatt Laser Into Hollow Core Waveguide for High-Harmonic Generation Above 200 eV

Hollow core waveguides are widely used in extreme field research to guide laser pulses. The laser peak intensity is usually several orders higher than the damage threshold of waveguide cladding material in these applications. The nonlinear drift of the spatial focus of such high power laser with the power or intensity fluctuation can easily destroy the waveguide in an avalanche manner. In this letter, we experimentally investigate the nonlinear drift of focal position and size of a sub-terawatt laser beam with respect to pulse energy and pulse duration. A theoretical model is derived and qualitatively explains the experimental observations. A reliable procedure to couple 3 mJ laser pulses at 27 fs into a hollow core waveguide with 150 $\mu \text{m}$ bore diameter is developed. When the waveguide is filled with Helium, the high harmonics up to 212 eV are generated which confirms that the intense laser pulses with peak intensity of $1.8\times 10 ^{\mathbf {15}}$ W/cm $^{\mathbf {2}}$ are successfully coupled into the waveguide.

Guiding and emission of milijoule single-cycle THz pulse from laser-driven wire-like targets.

The miscellaneous applications of terahertz have called for an urgent demand of a super intense terahertz source. Here, we demonstrate the capability of femtosecond laser-driven wires as an efficient ultra-intense terahertz source using 700 mJ laser pulses. When focused onto a wire target, coherent THz generation took place in the miniaturized gyrotron-like undulator where emitted electrons move in the radial electric field spontaneously created on wire surface. The single-cycle terahertz pulse generated from the target is measured to be radially polarized with a pulse energy of a few milijoule. By further applying this scheme to a wire-tip target, we show the near field of the 500 nm radius apex could reach up to 90 GV/m. This efficient THz energy generation and intense THz electric field mark a substantial improvement toward ultra-intense terahertz sources.

A 80 kV gas switch triggered by a 17 μJ fiber-optic laser.

A gas switch triggered by μJ laser pulses was developed. The switch employed a 10 mm-gap GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) mounted in parallel with one of its two gaps. The dark current-voltage characteristic of the PCSS was obtained, and the gas switch characteristics at different bias voltages were experimentally investigated. The results indicate that the switch can be triggered reliably by using a 17 µJ laser pulse, and the jitter is less than 3 ns at the bias voltage of 80 kV and 60% of the self-breakdown voltage.

Compact fiber-optic spectroscopic design and its validation in atmospheric water vapor Raman lidar

Spectroscopic systems with compact structure, high reliability, and high stability will push forward the application of lidar in the meteorological and environmental fields as well as space-based and space-borne lidar. Recently, we have successfully designed and verified a new robust fiber-optic spectroscopic Raman lidar for atmospheric water vapor measurements. The compact fiber-optic Raman spectroscopic design was proposed with a cascaded fiber Fabry–Perot filter and a fiber broadband filter, which features an all-fiber-connection structure and a high-spectral-resolution spectrum. These fiber-optic filters have been successfully fabricated in the visible region and matched each other in individual all-fiber Raman channels. The performance of the all-fiber spectroscopic system is measured experimentally, and it is demonstrated that the spectral output from the individual fiber Raman channel provides a bandwidth of 3–4 nm, a central wavelength of 660 nm or 606.7 nm, and an efficient rejection rate of more than > 10 7 , and it can thus achieve the extraction of vibrational Raman scattering signals from water vapor and from nitrogen molecules in lidar returns and simultaneously reject elastic scattering signals. Furthermore, the fiber-optic spectroscopic Raman lidar was developed at Xi’an University of Technology in Xi’an, China (34.233°N, 108.911°E), and preliminary exploration was carried out for water vapor measurements. Two measurement examples are analyzed to validate the lidar performance and the retrieved water vapor mixing ratio profiles, and its comparisons with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model data also verified the correctness of the lidar data. Despite the limitation of low coupling efficiency by a single-mode optical fiber, atmospheric water vapor measurements up to 700 m were achieved during nighttime under conditions of a 150 mJ laser pulse energy, a 600 mm telescope, and a 5 min integration time. The results validated the concept of all-fiber spectroscopic design and its feasibility for atmospheric water vapor measurements by Raman lidar. The compact fiber-structure characteristics and excellent optical properties provide a new solution to the new spectroscopic technique for operational applications of lidar and space-borne lidar.

Simultaneous laser-driven x-ray and two-photon fluorescence imaging of atomizing sprays

In this Letter, we report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the possibility of visualizing an atomizing spray by simultaneously recording x-ray absorption and two-photon laser-induced fluorescence imaging. This unique illumination/detection scheme is made possible due to the use of soft x rays emitted from a laser-driven x-ray source. An 800 mJ laser pulse of 38 fs duration is used to generate an x-ray beam with up to 4 × 10 8 photons ranging from 1 to 10 keV, allowing projection radiography of water jets generated by an automotive port fuel injector. In addition, a fraction of the laser pulse ( ∼ 10 m J ) is employed to form a light sheet and to induce two-photon fluorescence in a dye added to the water. The resulting high-contrast fluorescence images provide fine details of the spray structure, with reduced blur from multiple light scattering, while the integrated liquid mass is extracted from the x-ray radiography. In this proof of principle, we show that the combination of these two highly complementary techniques, in both the visible and soft x-ray regimes, is very promising for future characterization of challenging spray, as well as for further understanding of the physics of liquid atomization.

High-energy hybrid femtosecond laser system demonstrating 2 × 10 PW capability

Abstract We report on a two-arm hybrid high-power laser system (HPLS) able to deliver 2 × 10 PW femtosecond pulses, developed at the Bucharest-Magurele Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) Facility. A hybrid front-end (FE) based on a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier and a picosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on beta barium borate (BBO) crystals, with a cross-polarized wave (XPW) filter in between, has been developed. It delivers 10 mJ laser pulses, at 10 Hz repetition rate, with more than 70 nm spectral bandwidth and high-intensity contrast, in the range of 1013:1. The high-energy Ti:sapphire amplifier stages of both arms were seeded from this common FE. The final high-energy amplifier, equipped with a 200 mm diameter Ti:sapphire crystal, has been pumped by six 100 J nanosecond frequency doubled Nd:glass lasers, at 1 pulse/min repetition rate. More than 300 J output pulse energy has been obtained by pumping with only 80% of the whole 600 J available pump energy. The compressor has a transmission efficiency of 74% and an output pulse duration of 22.7 fs was measured, thus demonstrating that the dual-arm HPLS has the capacity to generate 10 PW peak power femtosecond pulses. The reported results represent the cornerstone of the ELI-NP 2 × 10 PW femtosecond laser facility, devoted to fundamental and applied nuclear physics research.

Three-Dimensional Wind Measurements with the Fibered Airborne Coherent Doppler Wind Lidar LIVE

A three-dimensional (3D) wind profiling Lidar, based on the latest high power 1.5 µm fiber laser development at Onera, has been successfully flown on-board a SAFIRE (Service des Avions Français Instrumentés pour la Recherche en Environnement) ATR42 aircraft. The Lidar called LIVE (LIdar VEnt) is designed to measure wind profiles from the aircraft down to ground level, with a horizontal resolution of 3 km, a vertical resolution of 100 m and a designed accuracy on each three wind vector components better than 0.5 m.s−1. To achieve the required performance, LIVE Lidar emits 410 µJ laser pulses repeating at 14 KHz with a duration of 700 ns and uses a conical scanner of 30° total opening angle and a full scan time of 17 s.

Carbon multicharged ion generation from laser-spark ion source.

Multicharged carbon ions are generated by using a laser-assisted spark-discharge ion source. A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser pulse (1064 nm, 7 ns, ≤ 4.5 × 109 W/cm2) focused onto the surface of a glassy carbon target results in its ablation. The spark-discharge (∼1.2 J energy, ∼1 µs duration) is initiated along the direction of the plume propagation between the target surface and a grounded mesh that is parallel to the target surface. Ions emitted from the laser-spark plasma are detected by their time-of-flight using a Faraday cup. The ion energy-to-charge ratio is analyzed by a three-mesh retarding field analyzer. In one set of experiments, the laser plasma is generated by target ablation using a 50 mJ laser pulse. In another set of experiments, ∼1.2 J spark-discharge energy is coupled to the expanding plasma to increase the plasma density and temperature that results in the generation of carbon multicharged ions up to C6+. A delay-generator is used to control the time delay between the laser pulse and the thyratron trigger. Ion generation from a laser pulse when a high DC voltage is applied to the target is compared to that when a spark-discharge with an equivalent pulsed voltage is applied to the target. The laser-coupled spark-discharge (7 kV peak voltage, 810 A peak current) increases the maximum detected ion charge state from C4+ to C6+, accompanied by an increase in the ion yield by a factor of ∼6 compared to applying 7.0 kV DC voltage to the target.