[en] The purpose of this project was to develop a high peak power laser system (100 TW) and begin initial high intensity experiments that exploit its short pulse width (30 fs) and high repetition rate (1 - 10 Hz). Such a laser system presents unique capabilities such as permitting ultrafast time-resolved plasma physics experiments by probing the plasma with the 30 fs laser pulse. The high repetition rate also allows detailed, systematic studies of phenomena, not possible with large, single shot laser systems. During the previous year we have made good progress on the development of the laser. We have demonstrated the production of pulses up to the 5 TW level at 10 Hz and have installed an additional amplifier to take the system to 20 TW. We have pulse compressed the pulses to 30 fs and have developed a number of diagnostics to characterize the laser prepulse. During this year we have also activated a target chamber to begin plasma physics experiments in gas jet targets

[en] We have resolved the expansion of intensely irradiated atomic clusters on a femtosecond time scale. These data show evidence for resonant heating, similar to resonance absorption, in spherical cluster plasmas

[en] The utilization of high-power short pulse laser employing chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) for material processing and inertial confinement research is widely increasing. The performance of these high-power CPA laser system continues to be limited by the ability of the pulse compression gratings to hold up to the high-average-power or high-peak-power of the laser. Pulse compression gratings used in transmission and fabricated out of bulk fused silica have intrinsically the highest laser damage threshold when compared with metal or multilayer dielectric gratings that work in reflection. LLNL has developed processing capability to produce high efficiency fused silica transmission gratings at sizes useful to future Petawatt-class systems, and has demonstrated high efficiency at smaller aperture. This report shows that fused silica diffraction exhibiting >95% efficiency into the -1 diffraction order in transmission (90^o deflection of the incident light, at an incidence angle of 45^o to the grating face). The microstructure of this grating consisted of grooves ion-beam etched to a depth of 1.6 microns with a pitch of 0.75 microns, using a holographically produced photoresist mask that was subsequently stripped away in significance to the fabrication of the small scale high efficiency grating was the development of the processing technology and infrastructure for production of such gratings at up to 65 cm diameter. LLNL is the currently the only location in the world with the ability to coat, interferometrically expose, and ion etch diffractive optics at this aperture. Below, we describe the design, fabrication, performance and, the scaleup process for a producing a high-efficiency transmission grating on a 65 cm fused silica substrate

[en] The goal of this project was to develop, through experiments and modeling, a better understanding of the physics issues and machining techniques related to short-pulse laser materials processing. Although we have successfully demonstrated many types of cuts in a wide range of materials, our general short-pulse machining scientific knowledge and our ability to model the complex physical processes involved are limited. During this past year we made good progress in addressing some of these issues, but there remain many unanswered questions. Section 2 begins with a theoretical look at short-pulse laser ablation of material using a 1-D radiation-hydrodynamic code which includes a self-consistent description of laser absorption and reflection from an expanding plasma. In Section 3 we present measurements of scaling relationships, hole drilling progression, electric field and polarization effects, and a detailed look at the interesting structures formed during hole drilling of metals under various conditions. Section 4 describes the consequences of the presence of a prepulse before the main drilling pulse. In Section 5 we take a brief look at the plasma plume: how it can be useful, and how we can avoid it. Finally, Section 6 contains a couple of examples of machining non-metals. The laser system used for practically all the experimental results presented here was a short-pulse laser based on Ti:sapphire, which produced 150-fs pulses (minimum) centered at 825 nm, of energy up to 5 mJ at 1 kHz, or 5 W average power

[en] With the operation of successively more intense and powerful lasers, such as the NOVA petawatt laser with I∼3x10²⁰ W/cm², several novel (to laser physics) nuclear diagnostics were used to determine the nature of the laser/matter interaction at the target surface. A broad beam of hot electrons, whose centroid varied from shot to shot, width was remarkably constant, and intensity was about 40% of the incident laser energy was observed. New nuclear phenomenon included photonuclear reactions [e.g., (γ,xn)], photofission of ²³⁸U and intense beams of ions. Photonuclear reactions were observed and quantified in Cu, Ni, and Au samples, and produced activation products as neutron deficient as ¹⁹¹Au [a (γ,6n) reaction], requiring gamma rays exceeding 50 MeV in energy. The spectral features of the gamma-ray source have been investigated by comparing activation ratios in Ni and Au samples, and angular distributions of higher energy photons have been measured with activation of spatially distributed Au samples. Extraordinarily intense beams of charged particles (primarily protons) were observed normal to the rear surface of the target and quantified using the charged particle reaction ⁴⁸Ti(p,n)⁴⁸V, radiochromic film and CR39 plastic track detectors. Approximately 3x10¹³ protons, with energies up to 55 MeV were observed in some experiments. Collimation of this beam increases with increasing proton energy. Correlations of activation with laser performance will be discussed

[en] Many of the conditions believed to underlie astrophysical phenomena have been difficult to achieve in a laboratory setting. For example, models of supernova remnant evolution rely on a detailed understanding of the propagation of shock waves with gigabar pressures at temperatures of 1 keV or more where radiative effects can be important. Current models of gamma ray bursts posit a relativistically expanding plasma fireball with copious production of electron-positron pairs, a difficult scenario to experimentally verify. However, a new class of lasers, such as the Petawatt laser,Perry 1996 are capable of producing focused intensities greater than 10²⁰ W/cm ampersand sup2; where such relativistic effects can be observed and even dominate the laser-target interaction. There is ample evidence in observational data from supernova remnants of the aftermath of the passage of radiative shock or blast waves. In the early phases of supernova remnant evolution, the radially-expanding shock wave expands nearly adiabatically since it is traveling at a very high velocity as it begins to sweep up the surrounding interstellar gas. A Sedov-Taylor blast wave solution can be applied to this phase,Taylor 1950, Sedov 1959 when the mass of interstellar gas swept up by the blast greatly exceeds the mass of the stellar ejecta, or a self-similar driven wave model can be applied if the ejecta play a significant role.Chevalier 1982 As the mass of the swept up material begins to greatly exceed the mass of the stellar ejecta, the evolution transitions to a radiative phase wherein the remnant can be modeled as an interior region of ldw-density, high-pressure gas surrounded by a thin, spherical shell of cooled, dense gas with a radiative shock as its outer boundary, the pressure-driven snowplow.Blondin et al. 1998 Until recently it has not been feasible to devise laboratory experiments wherein shock waves with initial pressures in excess of several hundred Mbar and temperatures approaching 1 keV are achieved in order to validate the models of the expanding blast wave launched by a supernova in both of its phases of evolution. We report on a new experiment designed to follow the propagation of a strong blast wave launched by the interaction of an intense short pulse laser with a solid target. This blast wave is generated by the irradiation of the front surface of a layered, solid target with N 400 J of 1 pm laser radiation in a 20 ps pulse focused to a N 50 ,um diameter spot, which produces an intensity in excess of 10¹⁸ W/cm ampersand sup2;. These conditions approximate a point explosion and a blast wave is predicted to be generated with an initial pressure of several hundred megabars which decays as it travels approximately radially outward from the interaction region. We have utilized streaked optical pyrometry of the blast front to determine its time of arrival at the rear surface of the target. Applications of a self-similar Taylor-Sedov blast wave solution allows the amount of energy deposited to be estimated. By varying the parameters of the laser pulse which impinges on the target, pressures on the order of 1 Gbar with initial temperatures in excess of 1 kev are achievable. At these temperatures and densities radiative processes are coupled to the hydrodynamic evolution of the system. Short pulse lasers produce a unique environment for the study of coupled radiation-hydrodynamics in a laboratory setting

[en] A model of energy gain induced by fast ignition of thermonuclear burn in compressed deuterium-tritium fuel, is used to show the potential for 300x gain with a driver energy of 1 M J, if the National Ignition Facility (NIF) were to be adapted for fast ignition. The physics of fast ignition has been studied using a petawatt laser facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Laser plasma interaction in a preformed plasma on a solid target leads to relativistic self-focusing evidenced by x-ray images. Absorption of the laser radiation transfers energy to an intense source of relativistic electrons. Good conversion efficiency into a wide angular distribution is reported. Heating by the electrons in solid density CD₂ produces 0.5 to 1/keV temperature, inferred from the D-D thermo-nuclear neutron yield

[en] The LLNL Petawatt Laser has achieved focused intensities up to 6 x 20 W/cm², which has opened a new, higher energy regime of relativistic laser-plasma interactions in which the quiver energies of the target electrons exceed the energy thresholds for many nuclear phenomena. We will describe recent experiments in which we have observed electrons accelerated to 100 MeV, photo-nuclear fission, and positron-electron pair creation

[en] The Petawatt laser at LLNL has opened a new regime of laser-matter interactions in which the quiver motion of plasma electrons is fully relativistic with energies extending well above the threshold for nuclear processes. In addition to -few MeV ponderomotive electrons produced in ultra-intense laser-solid interactions, we have found a high energy component of electrons extending to -100 MeV apparently from relativistic self-focusing and plasma acceleration in the underdense pre-formed plasma. The generation of hard bremsstrahlung, photo-nuclear reactions, and preliminary evidence for positron-electron pair production will be discussed

[en] The Petawatt laser at LLNL has opened a new regime of laser-matter interactions in which the quiver motion of plasma electrons is fully relativistic with energies extending well above the threshold for nuclear processes. We have developed broad-band magnetic spectrometers to measure the spectrum of high-energy electrons produced in laser-solid target experiments at the Petawatt, and have found that in addition to the expected flux of ∼few MeV electrons characteristic of the ponderomotive potential, there is a high energy component extending to ∼100 MeV apparently from plasma acceleration in the underdense pre-formed plasma. The generation of hard bremsstrahlung, photo-nuclear reactions, and preliminary evidence for positron-electron pair production will be discussed