Whole-beam self-focusing in fusion-relevant plasma.

Fast ignition inertial confinement fusion requires the production of a low-density channel in plasma with density scale-lengths of several hundred microns. The channel assists in the propagation of an ultra-intense laser pulse used to generate fast electrons which form a hot spot on the side of pre-compressed fusion fuel. We present a systematic characterization of an expanding laser-produced plasma using optical interferometry, benchmarked against three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations.

Preparations for a European R&D roadmap for an inertial fusion demo reactor.

A European consortium of 15 laboratories across nine nations have worked together under the EUROFusion Enabling Research grants for the past decade with three principle objectives. These are: (a) investigating obstacles to ignition on megaJoule-class laser facilities; (b) investigating novel alternative approaches to ignition, including basic studies for fast ignition (both electron and ion-driven), auxiliary heating, shock ignition, etc.; and (c) developing technologies that will be required in the future for a fusion reactor.

A high spatio-temporal resolution optical pyrometer at the ORION laser facility.

A streaked pyrometer has been designed to measure the temperature of ≈100 μm diameter heated targets in the warm dense matter region. The diagnostic has picosecond time resolution. Spatial resolution is limited by the streak camera to 4 μm in one dimension; the imaging system has superior resolution of 1 μm.

Laboratory analogue of a supersonic accretion column in a binary star system.

Astrophysical flows exhibit rich behaviour resulting from the interplay of different forms of energy-gravitational, thermal, magnetic and radiative. For magnetic cataclysmic variable stars, material from a late, main sequence star is pulled onto a highly magnetized (B>10 MG) white dwarf. The magnetic field is sufficiently large to direct the flow as an accretion column onto the poles of the white dwarf, a star subclass known as AM Herculis.

Multiwavelength interferometry system for the Orion laser facility.

We report on the design and testing of a multiwavelength interferometry system for the Orion laser facility based upon the use of self-path matching Wollaston prisms. The use of UV corrected achromatic optics allows for both easy alignment with an eye-safe light source and small (∼ millimeter) offsets to the focal lengths between different operational wavelengths. Interferograms are demonstrated at wavelengths corresponding to first, second, and fourth harmonics of a 1054 nm Nd:glass probe beam.

ORION laser target diagnostics.

The ORION laser facility is one of the UK's premier laser facilities which became operational at AWE in 2010. Its primary mission is one of stockpile stewardship, ORION will extend the UK's experimental plasma physics capability to the high temperature, high density regime relevant to Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) program. The ORION laser combines ten laser beams operating in the ns regime with two sub ps short pulse chirped pulse amplification beams.