Study of heating processes in the fast ignition scheme of laser fusion

本课题主要研究激光聚变快速点火方案中的加热过程。我们研究了超强激光产生的高能量密度带电粒子与高密度等离子体的相互作用。因此，在这个项目中，我们探索了更有效地加热高密度等离子体的可能性。我们演示了对超强短脉冲激光诱导的高能量密度电子的控制，并了解了加热过程的机理。这是控制高能量密度电子的第一个演示，发表在《自然》杂志2004年的《控制激光诱导的高能量密度电子的等离子体光子器件》上。等离子体光子器件的发明突破了高能密度电子控制的难题，使高密度等离子体得到高效加热。我们相信，计划4年的课题将在这3年内完成。本项目中发明的等离子体光子器件将被探索应用于各种领域，如新型X射线源和新电子束器件的开发，高压条件下状态方程的研究，激光聚变和实验室天体物理。超强激光产生的高能量密度质子之间的相互作用对于发展一种新的等离子体诊断方法以及用高能量密度质子加热高密度等离子体具有重要意义。我们认为，必须尽快将这一基础研究延伸到应用研究。因此，我们在3年内完成了这个项目。随后，我们将把这些研究成果发展到新的应用领域，如闪光X射线源和利用超强激光诱导的质子束主动测量高密度等离子体。

The main subject of this project is investigation of the heating process in the fast ignition scheme of laser fusion. We have studied interactions of high energy density charged particles generated by ultra-intense laser light with high density plasmas. In consequence, the possibility of more efficient heating of high density plasmas has been scoped in this project.We have demonstrated control of high energy density electrons induced by ultra-intense short pulse laser light as well as understood the mechanism of the heating process. This first demonstration of the control of the high energy density electrons has been published in Nature 2004 as "Plasma Photonic Devices to control the laser induced high energy density electrons". The invention of the plasma photonic devices has broken through the difficulties in the control of high energy density electrons, resulting in the efficiently heating of high density plasmas. Then we believe that the subject scheduled for 4 years has been completed in these 3 years.The plasma photonic devices invented in this project will be explored to be used in a variety of fields such as developments of novel x-ray source and new electron beam device and researches on EOS in high pressure conditions, laser fusion and laboratory astrophysics. The interactions of high energy density protons generated with ultra-intense laser light must be useful for development of a novel plasma diagnostics as well as the heating of high density plasmas with the high energy density protons. We believe that this basic research must be extended to application research as soon as possible. Therefore we have completed this project in 3 years. We will subsequently develop these research results to new applications such as flash x-ray sources and active measurements of the high density plasmas using proton beams induced by ultra-intense laser light.