Abstract
In this Letter, we show through numerical simulations and analytical results that overlapping multiple () laser beams in plasmas can lead to strong stochastic ion heating from many () electrostatic perturbations driven by beat waves between pairs of laser beams. For conditions typical of inertial-confinement-fusion experiment conditions, hundreds of such beat waves are driven in -scale plasmas, leading to ion heating rates of several . This mechanism saturates cross-beam energy transfer, with a reduction of linear gains by a factor and can strongly modify the overall hydrodynamics evolution of such laser-plasma systems.
- Received 30 August 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.195004
© 2012 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Heat from Beats
Published 8 November 2012
Simulations show that controlled beating of multiple laser frequencies optimizes energy delivery to inertial fusion targets.
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