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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Effect of cross-beam energy transfer on target-offset asymmetry in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions

The unintentional mispositioning of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsules from the center of laser beam convergence has long been shown in simulations to generate large ℓ = 1 asymmetry and significantly degrade implosion symmetry and fusion yields. Experimental yields on the OMEGA Laser System, however, have shown much less sensitivity to this initial target offset. This paper presents simulations of offset ICF implosions improved by including a physics model of cross-beam energy transfer (CBET), a mechanism of laser energy scattering from one beam to another. Room-temperature OMEGA implosion experiments with prescribed target offsets are simulated with and without CBET, illustrating that CBET mitigates the ℓ = 1 implosion asymmetry from target offset. Here, comparison of simulations to multiple complementary experimental observables indicates the addition of CBET physics in offset simulations is necessary to match experimental results.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Effect of cross-beam energy transfer on target-offset asymmetry in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions

The unintentional mispositioning of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsules from the center of laser beam convergence has long been shown in simulations to generate large ℓ = 1 asymmetry and significantly degrade implosion symmetry and fusion yields. Experimental yields on the OMEGA Laser System, however, have shown much less sensitivity to this initial target offset. This paper presents simulations of offset ICF implosions improved by including a physics model of cross-beam energy transfer (CBET), a mechanism of laser energy scattering from one beam to another. Room-temperature OMEGA implosion experiments with prescribed target offsets are simulated with and without CBET, illustrating that CBET mitigates the ℓ = 1 implosion asymmetry from target offset. Comparison of simulations to multiple complementary experimental observables indicates the addition of CBET physics in offset simulations is necessary to match experimental results.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Nanosecond dual-wavelength irradiation effects on laser-induced damage in hafnia coatings

Nanosecond dual-wavelength laser-induced damage was investigated at 1064 nm (1ω) and 355 nm (3ω) on ion-beam-sputtered hafnia single-layer coatings. Single-wavelength 1-on-1 tests were first conducted to establish reference onset fluences. Dual-wavelength tests combined a primary beam with variable fluence at one wavelength and a background, secondary wavelength beam with fixed fluences set to several percentages of the corresponding onset fluence. When 1ω was used as the background irradiation, the perceived damage resistance at 3ω decreased gradually. Here, in contrast, 3ω background irradiation at as little as 10% of the onset fluence led to an ≈ 50% abrupt reduction in the perceived 1ω damage resistance, followed by modest changes upon further increases in 3ω background fluences. Scanning electron microscopy and conversion ratios indicate that 3ω light is the primary driver of damage onset in the case of dual wavelength irradiation. A two-step precursor generation and activation model reproduces the 3ω behavior (1ω as background), but not the strong initial 1ω reduction (3ω as background), suggesting additional 3ω-induced precursors that saturate at low fluence.

Optics and optical instruments↗
DOE OSTI2024

Rapid Design and Manufacturing of High-Performance Materials for Turbine Blades

This research demonstrated the concept of carbide precipitation-strengthened refractory high entropy alloys (RHEA). The advantage of a precipitation strengthened alloy is all phases are in thermodynamic equilibrium promoting microstructural stability, and consequently retention of properties at elevated temperatures. Additionally, as with any precipitation strengthened – or age hardened - alloy, components can be heat-treated after manufacturing to manipulate the microstructure and optimize properties for performance. This is an advantage of the precipitation strengthened alloys over composites and ceramics materials, where the microstructure and properties are essentially fixed upon the initial materials manufacturing stage. High throughput (HT), multi-scale computer modeling was used to identifying novel RHEA compositions with desired characteristics needed for precipitation strengthening. Designs were validated by producing small ingots via are melting. The results showed that carbides precipitated and consequently, the strength of the alloys (measured in compression) increased after heat-treatment, which is the desired effect. The project also demonstrated the feasibility of producing articles from RHEA by additive manufacturing (AM). Electron beam melting (EBM) and laser direct energy deposition (L-DED) additive manufacturing methods, were explored with various processing parameters were interrogated for both methods. Sound (crack-free and dense) precipitation strengthened RHEA samples were produced via EDM AM, demonstrating the feasibility of the concept.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Mitigation of the harmful effects of stray-light reflections in high-energy laser systems

Reduction or elimination of negative consequences of reflected stray light from lens surfaces is achieved by propagating a laser beam through an eccentric pupil that excludes the optical axis of the system, which is rotationally symmetric. In such systems, stray light reflections eventually are focused onto the unique optical axis of the system, in either a real or virtual focal region. By using an eccentric pupil, all damage due to focusing of the stray light lies outside of the beam. These focal regions can, e.g., be physically blocked to eliminate beam paths that lead to optical damage, re-pulse beams and parasitic lasing.

Seppala, Lynn G.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of Low-Power H - Proton Beam Capability in Area-A

A low-power proton beam capability in Area-A will support NNSA, LANL, Global Security, DoD, and Office of Science missions. It will also provide a stepping-stone towards other future uses of Area-A. We propose a cost-effective technical approach to achieve this goal. The main focus of this project will be to provide beam for a radiation effect beamline and a second pRad beamline.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Investigations of Long-Range Wakefield Effects in a TESLA-type Cryomodule at FAST

The preservation of low emittance of electron beams during transport in the accelerating structures of large facilities is an ongoing challenge. In the cases of the TESLA-type superconducting rf cavities currently used in the European X-ray Free-electron Laser (XFEL) and the under-construction Linac Coherent Light Source upgrade (LCLS-II), off-axis beam transport may result in emittance dilution due to transverse long-range wakefields (LRWs) and short-range wakefields (SRW)***. To investigate such effects, experiments were performed at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility with its unique configuration of two TESLA-type cavities after the photocathode rf gun followed by an 8-cavity cryomodule CM). We generated beam trajectory changes with the H/V125 corrector set located 4 m upstream of the cryomodule. At 125 pC/bunch, 50 bunches, 25-MeV input, and 100-MeV exit energy, we observed for the first time submacropulse position slews of up to 500 microns at locations ~3 m after the CM and a centroid oscillation at a difference frequency of 240 kHz further downstream. Both are emittance-dilution effects which we mitigated with selective upstream beam steering.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Direct Observations of Sub-micropulse Electron-beam Effects from Short-range Wakefields in TESLA-type Superconducting RF Cavities

The preservation of the low emittance of electron beams during transport in the accelerating structures of large facilities is an ongoing challenge. In the cases of the TESLA-type superconducting rf cavities currently used in the European X-ray Free-electron Laser (FEL) and the under construction Linac Coherent Light Source upgrade (LCLS-II), off-axis beam transport may result in emittance dilution due to transverse long-range and short-range wakefields (SRW)*. To investigate such effects, experiments were performed at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility with its unique two-cavity configuration after the photocathode rf gun. We used optical transition radiation (OTR) imaging with a UV-visible synchroscan streak camera to display sub-micropulse y-t effects in the 41-MeV beam. The head-tail transverse kicks within the 11-ps-long micropulses were observed at the 100-micron level for steering off-axis in one cavity and several 100 microns for two cavities. Since the SRW kick angles go inversely with energy, these results may inform the commissioning plans of the LCLS-II injector where beam will be injected at ~1 MeV into a cryomodule.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Investigation of UV filaments and their applications

UV laser pulses at 266 nm with 170 ps duration and up to 300 mJ energy create UV filaments. The effects of different beam preparation scenarios on UV filamentation are discussed. Beam preparation by focusing in vacuum and launching into the atmosphere through an aerodynamic window establishes the existence of filaments as self-guided non-diffracting entities. In addition, focusing through the aerodynamic window converts the initial super-Gaussian into a parabolic beam profile at the edge of the nonlinear medium (air). The shock-wave generated by the UV filament is investigated via shadowgraphy techniques. The shock-wave is cylindrically symmetric, leaving a low density channel behind, which is well-sustained for 1 ms, as it propagates outward. This low density channel is a waveguide that can be used for guiding purposes. Applications of UV filaments including guiding, remote sensing, and drag reduction for supersonic aircrafts are discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dark matter clumps as sources of gravitational-wave glitches in LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data

We consider the hypothetical possibility that nonstationary glitch features in the noise of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors could be produced by small dark matter clumps that pass through the earth in the vicinity of gravitational-wave detectors. Here, we first derive the gravitational-wave strain that would be generated by the passage of such a dark matter clump. We find that the strain is primarily sourced by the Newtonian gravitational acceleration of the mirrors toward the clump and by the Shapiro time delay of the photons in the laser beams as they pass through the gravitational potential created by the dark matter clump. We also find that the Newtonian acceleration effect dominates the gravitational-wave strain for both ground and space-based interferometers. We then compare our dark matter clump, gravitational-wave strain model to 84 Koi-Fish glitches detected during the second observing run of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Collaboration through a Markov chain Monte Carlo Bayesian analysis. We find that all glitches but nine can be confidently rejected as having originated from dark matter clumps. For the remaining glitches, the dark matter hypothesis cannot be excluded, and the maximum a posteriori parameters yield minimum densities of about 10 −7 g⁡/cm 3 , within the model. These results allow us to place the first direct upper limits with gravitational-wave detectors on the local over-density of dark matter in the form of clumps in the local neighborhood of Earth, namely 𝜌 DM ⁢clumps ≲ 10 −15 g⁡/cm −3 .

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗
DOE OSTI2020

An ultra-compact x-ray free-electron laser

In the field of beam physics, two frontier topics have taken center stage due to their potential to enable new approaches to discovery in a wide swath of science. These areas are: advanced, high gradient acceleration techniques, and x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). Further, there is intense interest in the marriage of these two fields, with the goal of producing a very compact XFEL. In this context, recent advances in high gradient radio-frequency cryogenic copper structure research have opened the door to the use of surface electric fields between 250 and 500 MV m -1 . Such an approach is foreseen to enable a new generation of photoinjectors with six-dimensional beam brightness beyond the current state-of-the-art by well over an order of magnitude. This advance is an essential ingredient enabling an ultra-compact XFEL (UC-XFEL). In addition, one may accelerate these bright beams to GeV scale in less than 10 m. Such an injector, when combined with inverse free electron laser-based bunching techniques can produce multi-kA beams with unprecedented beam quality, quantified by 50 nm-rad normalized emittances. The emittance, we note, is the effective area in transverse phase space (x, p x /m e c) or (y, p y /m e c) occupied by the beam distribution, and it is relevant to achievable beam sizes as well as setting a limit on FEL wavelength. These beams, when injected into innovative, short-period (1–10 mm) undulators uniquely enable UC-XFELs having footprints consistent with university-scale laboratories. We describe the architecture and predicted performance of this novel light source, which promises photon production per pulse of a few percent of existing XFEL sources. We review implementation issues including collective beam effects, compact x-ray optics systems, and other relevant technical challenges. To illustrate the potential of such a light source to fundamentally change the current paradigm of XFELs with their limited access, we examine possible applications in biology, chemistry, materials, atomic physics, industry, and medicine—including the imaging of virus particles—which may profit from this new model of performing XFEL science.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Probing Strong-Field QED with Doppler-Boosted Petawatt-Class Lasers

In this work, we propose a scheme to explore regimes of strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SF QED) otherwise unattainable with the currently available laser technology. The scheme relies on relativistic plasma mirrors curved by radiation pressure to boost the intensity of petawatt-class laser pulses by Doppler effect and focus them to extreme field intensities. We show that very clear SF QED signatures could be observed by placing a secondary target where the boosted beam is focused.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Creating pair plasmas with observable collective effects

Although existing technology cannot yet directly produce fields at the Schwinger level, experimental facilities can already explore strong-field QED phenomena by taking advantage of the Lorentz boost of energetic electron beams. Recent studies show that QED cascades can create electron-positron pairs at sufficiently high density to exhibit collective plasma effects. Signatures of the collective pair plasma effects can appear in exquisite detail through plasmainduced frequency upshifts and chirps in the laser spectrum. Maximizing the magnitude of the QED plasma signature demands high pair density and low pair energy, which suits the configuration of colliding an over 10 18 Jm -3 energy-density electron beam with a 10 22 -10 23 Wcm -2 intensity laser pulse. The collision creates pairs that have a large plasma frequency, made even larger as they slow down or reverse direction due to both the radiation reaction and laser pressure. This paper explains at a tutorial level the key properties of the QED cascades and laser frequency upshift, and at the same time finds the minimum parameters that can be used to produce observable QED plasma.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulating the filamentation of smoothed laser beams with three-dimensional nonlinear dynamics

In a plasma, the ponderomotive force of an inhomogeneous electromagnetic field expels plasma from regions of high intensity. When a laser propagates through a plasma, this force creates density wells that subsequently modify the index of refraction. The beam refracts and focuses into these wells and may filament. In extreme cases, the laser beam will spray due to increasing angular divergence of the beam. The threshold for ponderomotive self-focusing is well established for isolated laser hotspots or speckles. Here, we define a practical threshold for characterizing the filamentation of thousands of speckles that are found in the focal plane of high-power laser beams spatially smoothed with random phase plates as used at high energy and power laser facilities studying inertial confinement fusion. This threshold is tested against three-dimensional simulations of speckled laser light propagating through plasma. Four metrics are applied to assess filamentation: the fraction of power above five times the average intensity, an effective f-number, the mean-squared perpendicular wavenumber, and the fraction of rarefied density with deviation from the initial density exceeding | δn/ n| = 0.1. The speckled beams studied are generated by random phase plates, both with and without additional polarization smoothing, in a parameter regime of relevance to indirect drive experiments. While filamentation has been discussed extensively in the literature, we believe this to be the first published simulation study with three-dimensional nonlinear hydrodynamics that addresses the onset threshold of ponderomotive filamentation and establishes the lengths and time scales necessary to reach a statistical steady state.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Artificial intelligence time series forecasting for feed-forward laser stabilization

Laser plasma accelerators, typically operating at 1–10 Hz repetition rates, have the ability to produce high-quality electron beams in compact, all-optical-driven configurations, with the electron beams uniquely suited for a wide variety of accelerator-based applications. However, fluctuations and drifts in the laser delivery to the meter-scaled and below plasma target (the electron beam source) will translate into electron beam source variations that can limit their utility for demanding applications like light sources or linear colliders. Commercially available active feedback laser stabilization systems are intrinsically bandwidth limited due to their integration with multi-inch corrective mirror mounts which minimizes their effectiveness. In this manuscript, we present a Neural Network time series forecaster that can predict laser position fluctuations of the laser delivery to the final target well ahead of a future laser shot. The Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) of the prediction accuracy was < 2 μ m for a 1 / e 2 beam radius of 34 μ m . Our feed-forward approach serves as a first-step in circumventing the bandwidth limitations imposed by the currently available stabilization systems since it allows for mirrors to be moved into position ahead of time to offset the predicted future position drift. This will help advance laser plasma accelerator research by providing greater robustness and stability needed for its applications.

Berger, Curtis↗
DOE OSTI2024

Shock formation in flowing plasmas by temporally and spatially smoothed laser beams

The cumulative impact of multiple laser speckles on a supersonic plasma flow across optically smoothed laser beams is investigated. The bending of laser beams caused by ponderomotive laser–plasma coupling, together with flow, leads to plasma a momentum-conserving response that results in a deceleration of the flow. Once the flow velocity decreases to a subsonic level, the action of the laser beams can generate a shock within the plasma. This scenario has been predicted theoretically and confirmed by hydrodynamic simulations. The conditions of shock generation are given in terms of the ponderomotive pressure, speckle size, and the flow velocity. The nonlinear properties of the shocks are analyzed using Rankine–Hugoniot relations. According to linear theory, temporally smoothed beams exhibit a higher threshold for shock generation. Numerical simulations with beams that are smoothed by spectral dispersion compare well with the linear theory results, diverging only in the nonlinear regime. The conditions necessary for shock generation and their effects on the laser–plasma coupling in the inertial confinement fusion experiments are also discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Size scaling of acceleration phase energetics and its effects on direct-drive DT-layered implosions

A fundamental question in inertial confinement fusion is how implosion performance, and therefore ignition thresholds and fusion gain, evolve with target size. In laser-driven direct drive fusion, the scaling of laser-drive performance with size is critical to this evolution and to extrapolating results from the 30-kJ OMEGA laser-fusion experiments to ignition-class facilities such as the National Ignition Facility. Beyond the well-known adverse effects of cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) on drive performance, here we demonstrate that effects related to the non-scaling physics of thermal conduction and electron–ion energy equilibration exert an influence on drive behavior with scale that equals or surpasses that of CBET. We find that a significant portion of the lost implosion performance with increasing scale is due to the loss of shell implosion velocity. Here, we show that while modest modifications to hydro-scaled designs can recover most of the lost implosion velocity, a full hydro-equivalent performance extrapolation is difficult to achieve without CBET mitigation or subcooling below the triple point of DT.

Patel, D. [University of Rochester, NY (United Sta↗