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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Multi-messenger dynamic imaging of laser-driven shocks in water using a plasma wakefield accelerator

Understanding dense matter hydrodynamics is critical for predicting plasma behavior in environments relevant to laser-driven inertial confinement fusion. Traditional diagnostic sources face limitations in brightness, spatiotemporal resolution, and in their ability to detect relevant electromagnetic fields. In this work, we present a dual-probe, multi-messenger laser wakefield accelerator platform combining ultrafast X-rays and relativistic electron beams at 1 Hz, to interrogate a free-flowing water target in vacuum, heated by an intense 200 ps laser pulse. This scheme enables high-repetition-rate tracking the evolution of the interaction using both particle types. Betatron X-rays reveal a cylindrically symmetric shock compression morphology assisted by low-density vapor, resembling foam-layer-assisted fusion targets. The synchronized electron beam detects time-evolving electromagnetic fields, uncovering charge separation and ion species differentiation during plasma expansion – phenomena not captured by photons or hydrodynamic simulations. We show that combining both probes provides complementary insights spanning kinetic to hydrodynamic regimes, highlighting the need for hybrid physics models to accurately predict fusion-relevant plasma behavior.

imaging techniques↗
DOE OSTI2024

Novel 4x4 SiPM array readout with integrated preamplification stage, optimized for the PWO detectors of the EIC EEEMCal

Here we are reporting on a new readout circuit developed for the lead tungstate (PbWO4) scintillation detectors for the Electron Ion Collider (EIC) Electron Endcap Electromagnetic Calorimeter EEEMCal. The high magnetic field region precludes the use of photomultiplier tubes while the detector requirements specify good spectral resolution performance and fast pulse integration over a large dynamic range. We selected a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) from Hamamatsu and produced a matrix of 4 x 4 sensors to cover the 20 mm x 20 mm scintillator coupling surface. Signal acquisition and amplification electronics boards were designed and integrated with the sensor board to produce a compact high performance readout package. A prototype detector was built and tested at Jefferson Lab with encouraging resolution and timing performance results.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Microphonics Passive Damping

Different types of external loads on the resonator walls predetermine the main working conditions of the SRF cavities. The most important of them are very high electromagnetic fields that result in strong Lorentz forces and the pressure on cavity walls from the helium tank that also deforms the cavity shape. For pulsed operation, the Lorentz forces usually play the decisive role for the cavity design. For CW operation, the liquid helium vessel pressure instability even for 2K operations is the source of large microphonics. All deformations resulting from any type of external loads on cavity walls lead to shifts in the working RF frequency in the range of hundreds of kHz. Taking into account high Q-factor of SC cavities such a large frequency shift takes the cavity out of operation. Here we present and discuss the achievements and problems of microphonics passive damping in different type SRF cavities.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Effect of laser radiation on the gamma activity of aqueous salt solutions containing {sup 152}Eu

We report an experimental study of the effect of laser irradiation of aqueous salt solutions containing the {sup 152}Eu isotope in the presence of nickel nanoparticles on the gamma activity of the isotope. Nickel nanoparticles are generated using laser ablation of the target in water and added to the radionuclide solution before irradiation. Two types of Nd : YAG lasers with a pulse duration of 10 ns and different repetition rates are used to irradiate the solutions. It is found that the {sup 152}Eu activity as a result of repeated irradiation of solutions by a series of pulses decreases with each irradiation cycle. The obtained results are compared with data on the effect of maser radiation with a wavelength of 8 mm on the activity of the same isotope. Possible mechanisms of the effect of electromagnetic radiation on the {sup 152}Eu gamma activity are discussed. (interaction of laser radiation with matter)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

A high-power, high-repetition-rate THz source for pump–probe experiments at Linac Coherent Light Source II

Experiments using a THz pump and an X-ray probe at an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facility like the Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS II) require frequency-tunable (3 to 20 THz), narrow bandwidth (~10%), carrier-envelope-phase-stable THz pulses that produce high fields (>1 MV cm –1 ) at the repetition rate of the X-rays and are well synchronized with them. Herein, a two-bunch scheme to generate THz radiation at LCLS II is studied: the first bunch produces THz radiation in an electromagnet wiggler immediately following the LCLS II undulator that produces X-rays from the second bunch. The initial time delay between the two bunches is optimized to compensate for the path difference in THz transport. The two-bunch beam dynamics, the THz wiggler and radiation are described, as well as the transport system bringing the THz pulses from the wiggler to the experimental hall.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Growth of concomitant laser-driven collisionless and resistive electron filamentation instabilities over large spatiotemporal scales

Collective processes in plasmas often induce microinstabilities that play an important role in many space or laboratory plasma environments. Particularly of note is the Weibel-type current filamentation instability, which is believed to drive the creation of collisionless shocks in weakly magnetized astrophysical plasmas. In this paper, this instability class is studied through interactions of ultraintense and short laser pulses with solid foils, leading to localized generation of megaelectronvolt electrons. Proton radiographic measurements of both low- and high-resistivity targets show two distinct, superimposed electromagnetic field patterns arising from the interpenetration of the megaelectronvolt electrons and the background plasma. Particle-in-cell simulations and theoretical estimates suggest that the collisionless Weibel instability building up in the dilute expanding plasmas formed at the target surfaces causes the observed azimuthally symmetric electromagnetic filaments. For a sufficiently high resistivity of the target foil, an additional resistive instability is triggered in the bulk target, giving rise to radially elongated filaments. The data reveal the growth of both filamentation instabilities over large temporal (tens of picoseconds) and spatial (hundreds of micrometres) scales.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

2020 roadmap on plasma accelerators

Abstract Plasma-based accelerators use the strong electromagnetic fields that can be supported by plasmas to accelerate charged particles to high energies. Accelerating field structures in plasma can be generated by powerful laser pulses or charged particle beams. This research field has recently transitioned from involving a few small-scale efforts to the development of national and international networks of scientists supported by substantial investment in large-scale research infrastructure. In this New Journal of Physics 2020 Plasma Accelerator Roadmap, perspectives from experts in this field provide a summary overview of the field and insights into the research needs and developments for an international audience of scientists, including graduate students and researchers entering the field.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Entanglement of excitons by acoustic guiding

A system is described that exhibits the functionality of a beam-splitter, typically an optical device that splits a beam of light in two. In this case, the beams are acoustic pulses and can lead to the creation of a Wannier-Mott exciton: a bound state of an electron and an electron hole whose attraction to each other is maintained by the electrostatic Coulomb force. This exciton beam-splitter is lossy (i.e., involves the dissipation of electrical or electromagnetic energy). Half of the time the exciton is radiated away. Nevertheless, if the exciton is not lost, the exciton is now in a superposition of two states that can be well separated in position. Four such beam-splitters can be used to make an exciton interferometer that uses the interference patterns from the interacting acoustic pulses to extract information.

Yurke, Bernard↗
DOE OSTI2021

Relativistic flying laser focus by a laser-produced parabolic plasma mirror

Here, the question of electromagnetic field intensification towards the values typical for strong field quantum electrodynamics is of fundamental importance. One of the most promising intensification schemes is based on the relativistic-flying mirror concept, which shows that the electromagnetic radiation reflected by the mirror will be frequency upshifted by a factor of 4γ 2 (γ is the Lorentz factor of the mirror). In laser-plasma interactions, such a mirror travels with relativistic velocities through plasma and typically has a parabolic form, which is advantageous for light intensification. Thus, a relativistic-flying parabolic mirror reflects the counterpropagating radiation in the form of a focused and flying electromagnetic wave with a high frequency. The relativistic-flying motion of the laser focus makes the electric and magnetic field distributions of the focus complicated, and the mathematical expressions describing the field distributions of the focus become of fundamental interest. We present analytical expressions describing the field distribution formed by an ideal flying mirror which has a perfect reflectance over the entire surface and wavelength range. The peak field strength of an incident laser pulse with a center wavelength of λ 0 and an effective beam radius of w e is enhanced by a factor proportional to γ 3 (w e /λ 0 ) in the relativistic limit. Electron-positron pair production is investigated in the context of invariant fields based on the enhanced electromagnetic field. The pair production rate under the relativistic-flying laser focus is modified by the Lorentz γ-factor and the beam radius-wavelength ratio (w e /λ 0 ). We show that the electron-positron pairs can be created by colliding two counterpropagating relativistic-flying laser focuses in vacuum, each of which is formed when a 180 TW laser pulse is reflected by a relativistic-flying parabolic mirror with γ=12.2.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Method and apparatus to digitize pulse shapes from radiation detectors

A field programmable gate array based multi-channel flash ADC unit combined with a high speed multi-lane data communications channel/Ethernet-like modular intercommunication providing a complete but easily expandable high-speed data acquisition system. This apparatus and method permits high-speed pulse-shape digitalization allowing position resolution imaging of particles having a range of energies and is scalable to achieve the efficient capture of coincident data from large electromagnetic detector arrays.

Weisenberger, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2022

Electromagnetic Fireworks: Fast Radio Bursts from Rapid Reconnection in the Compressed Magnetar Wind

One scenario for the generation of fast radio bursts (FRBs) is magnetic reconnection in a current sheet of the magnetar wind. Compressed by a strong magnetic pulse induced by a magnetar flare, the current sheet fragments into a self-similar chain of magnetic islands. Time-dependent plasma currents at their interfaces produce coherent radiation during their hierarchical coalescence. We investigate this scenario using 2D radiative relativistic particle-in-cell simulations to compute the efficiency of the coherent emission and to obtain frequency scalings. Consistent with expectations, a fraction of the reconnected magnetic field energy, f ~ 0.002, is converted to packets of high-frequency fast magnetosonic waves, which can escape from the magnetar wind as radio emission. In agreement with analytical estimates, we find that magnetic pulses of 10 47 erg s –1 can trigger relatively narrowband GHz emission with luminosities of approximately 10 42 erg s –1 , sufficient to explain bright extragalactic FRBs. The mechanism provides a natural explanation for a downward frequency drift of burst signals, as well as the ~100 ns substructure recently detected in FRB 20200120E.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design and Characterization of a Lens-Coupled System for Dynamic X-Ray Diffraction

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a necessary technique for understanding states of materials under static and dynamic loading conditions. The higher-pressure Equation of State (EOS) of many materials can only be explored via shock or ramp compression at temperatures and pressures of interest. While static XRD work has yielded EOS measurements in the 100 - 200 GPa regime, dynamic X-ray diffraction (DXRD) can explore EOS phases in the TPa regime, which closely resembles inner-core planetary conditions. DXRD hinges on the ability to measure the exact phase or phase change of a material while under dynamic loading conditions. Macroscopic diagnostic systems (e.g. velocimetry and pyrometry) can infer a phase change but not identify the specific phase entered by a material. While microscopic (atomic-level) diagnostic systems (e.g. DXRD) have been designed and implemented in Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Laboratories complex, the unique nature of Sandia National Laboratories’ Pulsed Power Facility (Z Machine) prohibits the use of such devices. The destructive nature of Z experiments presents a challenge to data capture and retrieval. Furthermore there are electromagnetic interference, X-ray background, and mechanical constraints to consider. Thus, a multi-part X-ray diagnostic for use on the Z Machine and Z-Beamlet Laser system has been designed and analyzed. Portions of this new DYnamic SCintillator Optic (DYSCO) have been built, tested and fielded. A data analysis software has been written. Finally, the radiance profile of the DYSCO’s scintillator has been characterized through experiments performed at the University of Arizona.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Multipoint Ignition of a Gas Mixture by a Microwave Subcritical Discharge with an Extended Streamer Structure

The results of experimental studies on using an electrical discharge with an extended streamer structure in a quasioptical microwave beam in the multipoint ignition of a propane–air mixture have been reported. The pulsed microwave discharge was initiated at the interior surface of a quartz tube that was filled with the mentioned flammable mixture and introduced into a microwave beam with a subbreakdown initial field. Gas breakdown was initiated by an electromagnetic vibrator. The dependence of the type of discharge on the microwave field strength was examined, the lower concentration threshold of ignition of the propane–air mixture by the studied discharge was determined, and the dynamics of combustion of the flammable mixture with local and multipoint ignition were compared.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Relativistically Induced Transparency in Plasma (Final Research Report)

The major goal of this project was to study the process of relativistic transparency in plasmas. This process occurs when a very high intensity laser pulse interacts with a plasma. The electric field of the laser oscillates the electron speeds approaching the speed of light, increasing the effective mass of the electrons by the time-averaged Lorentz factor <γ>. The increase in the effective mass alters the critical density, the density at which the plasma becomes opaque to the electromagnetic wave of the laser. This project used experiments and particle-in-cell simulations to study this process in ultra-thin foil interactions. Experiments were performed through the LaserNetUS program on the Ohio State University laser system Scarlet. The transmitted and reflected light was studied as a function of the target thickness, the near-field profiles, the total energy and pulse duration were measured. Particle-in-cell simulations, using the OSIRIS code were used to model the interaction and better understand the dynamics. The results of both show current relativistic transparency theory is insufficient to predict the results, this is likely because the theories do not account for the laser energy absorption into the target and global plasma fields.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multiresonant metasurfaces for arbitrarily broad bandwidth pulse chirping and dispersion compensation

Here, we show that ultrathin metasurfaces with a specific multiresonant response can enable simultaneously arbitrarily strong and arbitrarily broadband dispersion compensation, pulse (de)chirping, and compression or broadening. This breakthrough overcomes the fundamental limitations of both conventional nonresonant approaches (bulky) and modern singly resonant metasurfaces (narrowband) for quadratic phase manipulations of electromagnetic signals. The required nonuniform trains of resonances in the electric and magnetic sheet conductivities that completely control phase delay, group delay, and chirp are rigorously derived and the limitations imposed by fundamental physical constraints are thoroughly discussed. Subsequently, a practical, truncated approximation by finite sequences of physically realizable linear resonances is constructed and the associated error is quantified. By appropriate spectral ordering of the resonances, operation can be achieved either in transmission or reflection mode, enabling full space coverage. The proposed concept is not limited to dispersion compensation, but introduces a generic and powerful ultrathin platform for the spatiotemporal control of broadband real-world signals with a myriad of applications in modern optics, microwave photonics, radar, and communication systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Investigation of a Rail Electromagnetic Plasma Jet Source

We report the results of investigation of elements of a rail-type electromagnetic accelerator (railgun), which are aimed at analysis of the mechanism of formation of a dense clean plasma jet with a high kinetic energy. The accelerator is tested with a pulsed gas puffing and with electrodes of different shapes and lengths, as well as an additional magnetic field produced by external current-carrying conductors. We have developed a method for monitoring plasma jet parameters on a plasma gun test bench using a pressure sensor and an infrared camera. We have analyzed the dependence of deuterium plasma jet pressure on the distance to the accelerator and estimated kinetic energy of the jet.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Uncovering extreme nonlinear dynamics in solids through time-domain field analysis

Time-domain analysis of harmonic fields with sub-cycle resolution is now experimentally viable due to the emergence of sensitive, on-chip techniques for petahertz-scale optical-field sampling. We demonstrate how such a time-domain, field-resolved analysis uncovers the extreme nonlinear electron dynamics responsible for high-harmonic generation within solids. Time-dependent density functional theory was used to simulate harmonic generation from a solid-state band-gap system driven by near- to mid-infrared waveforms. Particular attention was paid to regimes where both intraband and interband emission mechanisms play a critical role in shaping the nonlinear response. We show that a time-domain analysis of the harmonic radiation fields identifies the interplay between intra- and interband dynamical processes underlying the nonlinear light generation. With further analysis, we show that changes to the dominant emission regime can occur after only slight changes to the peak driving intensity and central driving wavelength. Furthermore, time-domain analysis of harmonic fields also reveals, for the first time, the possibility of rapid changes in the dominant emission mechanism within the temporal window of the driving pulse envelope. Finally, we examine the experimental viability of performing time-domain analysis of harmonic fields with sub-cycle resolution using realistic parameters.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗