Modelling electron transport through laser-driven compression of CH plasma with HYDRA*

The Fast Ignition (FI) scheme of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) involves fusion fuel compression to high densities via long pulse lasers, followed by fuel heating via electron energy deposition. These electrons are produced by irradiating a metal foil with a high intensity short-pulse laser, producing a beam of 1-10 MeV “hot” electrons. Applying an external magnetic field parallel to the electron beam can prolong the confinement of the hot electrons within the dense plasma, increasing the heating efficiency. We use the radiation-hydrodynamics code HYDRA to investigate the laser-driven compression of cylindrical CH foam and determine the macroscopic plasma properties (temperature, density, etc.). We may then input these properties to the hybrid-PIC code LSP to simulate the electron propagation and energy deposition into the plasma. We compare the results with a recent experiment performed at LLE, where Omega-60 was used to compress CH foam and Omega EP was used to produce hot electrons to propagate with and without a magnetic field.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

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