Speaker
Description
A reasonably complete understanding of laser-plasma instabilities in directly-driven inertial confinement fusion has been gained over the past few years by a combination of advances in theory, model development and experiment. It is seen that, by application of laser bandwidth at the 1% level, prospects of ignition on a MJ-scale facility are much improved. I will describe the physical models that have led to these conclusions and the possibility of testing the results in near future. These tests will involve focused laser-plasma interaction experiments using the ultra-broadband laser program underway at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (University of Rochester, NY, United States). I will also describe recent work that is exploring the use of structured, orbital angular momentum carrying, laser beams to achieve similar mitigating effects on existing laser facilities that lack a broad bandwidth capability.
