Demonstration of a spherical plasma mirror for the counter-propagating kilojoule-class petawatt LFEX laser system

• Published in: Optics express 2022-11, Vol.30 (24), p.43491-43502
• Main Authors: Kojima, Sadaoki, Abe, Yuki, Miura, Eisuke, Ozaki, Tetsuo, Yamanoi, Kohei, Ikeda, Tomokazu, Wang, Yubo, Dun, Jinyuan, Guo, Shuwang, Maekawa, Tamaki, Takizawa, Ryunosuke, Morita, Hiroki, Asano, Shoui, Arikawa, Yasunobu, Sawada, Hiroshi, Ishii, Katsuhiro, Hanayama, Ryohei, Okihara, Shinichiro, Kitagawa, Yoneyoshi, Kajimura, Yasuhiro, Morace, Alessio, Shiraga, Hiroyuki, Shigemori, Keisuke, Sunahara, Atsushi, Iwata, Natsumi, Sano, Takayoshi, Sentoku, Yasuhiko, Johzaki, Tomoyuki, Nishikino, Masaharu, Iwamoto, Akifumi, Nagaoka, Kenichi, Sakagami, Hitoshi, Fujioka, Shinsuke, Mori, Yoshitaka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/oe.475945

A counter-propagating laser-beam platform using a spherical plasma mirror was developed for the kilojoule-class petawatt LFEX laser. The temporal and spatial overlaps of the incoming and redirected beams were measured with an optical interferometer and an x-ray pinhole camera. The plasma mirror performance was evaluated by measuring fast electrons, ions, and neutrons generated in the counter-propagating laser interaction with a Cu-doped deuterated film on both sides. The reflectivity and peak intensity were estimated as ∼50% and ∼5 × 10 W/cm , respectively. The platform could enable studies of counter-streaming charged particles in high-energy-density plasmas for fundamental and inertial confinement fusion research.