Helium as a Surrogate for Deuterium in LPI Studies

Helium or neopentane can be used as surrogate gas fill for deuterium (D2) or deuterium-tritium (DT) in laser-plasma interaction studies. Surrogates are convenient to avoid flammability hazards or the integration of cryogenics in an experiment. To test the degree of equivalency between deuterium and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Laser and particle beams 2024-01, Vol.2023
Main Authors: Geissel, Matthias, Harvey-Thompson, Adam J., Weis, Matthew R., Fein, Jeffrey R., Ampleford, David, Bliss, David E., Hansen, Aaron M., Jennings, Christopher, Kimmel, Mark W., Rambo, Patrick, Shores, Jonathon E., Smith, Ian C., Speas, C. Shane, Porter, John L., Consoli, Fabrizio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Helium or neopentane can be used as surrogate gas fill for deuterium (D2) or deuterium-tritium (DT) in laser-plasma interaction studies. Surrogates are convenient to avoid flammability hazards or the integration of cryogenics in an experiment. To test the degree of equivalency between deuterium and helium, experiments were conducted in the Pecos target chamber at Sandia National Laboratories. Observables such as laser propagation and signatures of laser-plasma instabilities (LPI) were recorded for multiple laser and target configurations. It was found that some observables can differ significantly despite the apparent similarity of the gases with respect to molecular charge and weight. While a qualitative behaviour of the interaction may very well be studied by finding a suitable compromise of laser absorption, electron density, and LPI cross sections, a quantitative investigation of expected values for deuterium fills at high laser intensities is not likely to succeed with surrogate gases.
ISSN:0263-0346