The effect of inner-surface roughness of conical targets on the generation of fast electrons in the laser-cone interaction is investigated using particle-in-cell simulation. It is found that the surface roughness can reduce the fast-electron number （in the energy range E 〉 1 MeV） and energy, as compared to that from a cone with smooth inner wall. A scaling law for the laser reflectivity based on the vacuum-heating model is derived. Both theory and simulation indicate that laser reflection increases with the height-to-width ratio of the periodic inner surface structure and approaches that of a smooth cone as this ratio becomes zero.
We review the present status and future prospects of fast ignition(FI) research of the theoretical group at the IAPCM(Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing) as a part of the inertial confinement fusion project. Since the approval of the FI project at the IAPCM, we have devoted our efforts to improving the integrated codes for FI and designing advanced targets together with the experimental group. Recent FI experiments [K. U. Akli et al., Phys. Rev. E 86, 065402(2012)] showed that the petawatt laser beam energy was not efficiently converted into the compressed core because of the beam divergence of relativistic electron beams. The coupling efficiency can be improved in three ways:(1) using a cone–wire-in-shell advanced target to enhance the transport efficiency,(2) using external magnetic fields to collimate fast electrons, and(3) reducing the prepulse level of the petawatt laser beam. The integrated codes for FI, named ICFI, including a radiation hydrodynamic code, a particle-in-cell(PIC) simulation code,and a hybrid fluid–PIC code, have been developed to design this advanced target at the IAPCM. The Shenguang-II upgraded laser facility has been constructed for FI research; it consists of eight beams(in total 24 kJ/3ω, 3 ns) for implosion compression, and a heating laser beam(0.5–1 kJ, 3–5 ps) for generating the relativistic electron beam. A fully integrated FI experiment is scheduled for the 2014 project.
A two-dimensional hybrid code is developed to model the transport of a high-current electron beam in a dense plasma target. The beam electrons are treated as particles and described by particle-in-cell simulation including collisions with the target plasma particles. The background target plasma is assumed to be a stationary fluid with temperature variations. The return current and the self-generated electric and magnetic fields are obtained by combining Amp^re＇s law without the displacement current, the resistive Ohm＇s law and Faraday＇s law. The equations are solved in two-dimensional cylindrical geometry with rotational symmetry on a regular grid, with centered spatial differencing and first-order implicit time differencing. The algorithms implemented in the code are described, and a numerical experiment is performed for an electron beam with Maxwellian distribution ejected into a uniform deuterium-tritium plasma target.
By using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation,we demonstrate a scheme for highenergy-density electron beam generation by irradiating an ultra intense laser pulse onto an aluminum（Al） target.With the laser having a peak intensity of 4×10^23W cm^-2,a high quality electron beam with a maximum density of 117 nc and a kinetic energy density up to8.79×10^18J m^-3 is generated.The temperature of the electron beam can be 416 Me V,and the beam divergence is only 7.25°.As the laser peak intensity increases（e.g.,1024 W cm^-2）,both the beam energy density（3.56×10^19J m^-3） and the temperature（545 Me V） are increased,and the beam collimation is well controlled.The maximum density of the electron beam can even reach 180 nc.Such beams should have potential applications in the areas of antiparticle generation,laboratory astrophysics,etc.
