Maggie Rivers, UT-Austin

"Laser-Plasma Interactions of Frequency Doubled Laser Pulses in a Strong Magnetic Field"

Abstract: When plasma instabilities grow, the plasma becomes turbulent and non-uniformly heated. High temperatures are necessary for achieving fusion in plasmas, so minimizing instabilities, or LPI, is of significant concern when designing fusion devices. Two such instabilities of particular concern are Stimulated Raman Scattering and Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, which must be minimized for inertial confinement fusion. With the addition of a magnetic field, the nonlinear behavior associated with LPI could be aggravated or significantly affected in the plasma. Inertial fusion systems are generally designed around lasers using short wavelengths (in the ultraviolet range) since LPI scales strongly with wavelength. However, high frequency light comes with the downside of yielding significant damage to the optics in the laser chain. In characterizing LPI in the 2ω range, this research will assess the advantages of using less optically damaging light at the cost of more LPI due to the longer wavelengths. Most importantly, this work will be a fundamental study of how LPI differs in a magnetized regime.

Meeting ID: 939 4584 1488, Passcode: 675558