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Sentoku, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Sentoku, Y..

26 records · Page 2

A compact broadband ion beam focusing device based on laser-driven megagauss thermoelectric magnetic fields

Ultra-intense lasers can nowadays routinely accelerate kiloampere ion beams. These unique sources of particle beams could impact many societal (e.g., proton-therapy or fuel recycling) and fundamental (e.g., neutron probing) domains. However, this requires overcoming the beam angular divergence at the source. This has been attempted, either with large-scale conventional setups or with compact plasma techniques that however have the restriction of short (<1 mm) focusing distances or a chromatic behavior. Here, we show that exploiting laser-triggered, long-lasting (>50 ps), thermoelectric multi-megagauss surface magnetic (B)-fields, compact capturing, and focusing of a diverging laser-driven multi-MeV ion beam can be achieved over a wide range of ion energies in the limit of a 5° acceptance angle.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Laser–plasma interactions for fast ignition

In the electron-driven fast-ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion, petawatt laser pulses are required to generate MeV electrons that deposit several tens of kilojoules in the compressed core of an imploded DT shell. We review recent progress in the understanding of intense laser- plasma interactions (LPI) relevant to fast ignition. Increases in computational and modeling capabilities, as well as algorithmic developments have led to enhancement in our ability to perform multidimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of LPI at relevant scales. We discuss the physics of the interaction in terms of laser absorption fraction, the laser-generated electron spectra, divergence, and their temporal evolution. Scaling with irradiation conditions such as laser intensity, f-number and wavelength are considered, as well as the dependence on plasma parameters. Different numerical modeling approaches and configurations are addressed, providing an overview of the modeling capabilities and limitations. In addition, we discuss the comparison of simulation results with experimental observables. In particular, we address the question of surrogacy of today's experiments for the full-scale fast ignition problem.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Collisional particle-in-cell modeling for energy transport accompanied by atomic processes in dense plasmas

Fully relativistic collisional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code, PICLS, has been developed to study extreme energy density conditions produced in intense laser-solid interaction. Recent extensions to PICLS, such as the implementation of dynamic ionization, binary collisions in a partially ionized plasma, and radiative losses, enhance the efficacy of simulating intense laser plasma interaction and subsequent energy transport in resistive media. Different ionization models are introduced and benchmarked against each other to check the suitability of the model. The atomic physics models are critical to determine the energy deposition and transport in dense plasmas, especially when they consist of high Z (atomic number) materials. Finally we demonstrate the electron transport simulations to show the importance of target material on fast electron dynamics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗