Foam Au driven by 4$\omega$ - 2$\omega$ ignition laser pulse for inertial confinement fusion

Abstract

Green light (2$\omega$) has the potential to drive ignition target for laser fusion with significantly more energy than blue light (3$\omega$) and a relatively higher damage threshold for the optic components in the final optic assembly, but it has issues of a relatively low laser to x-ray conversion efficiency and a hard x-ray spectrum as compared to 3$\omega$. In this paper, we propose to drive a foam hohlraum wall with an ignition laser pulse by taking a 4$\omega$ laser at the pre-pulse and a 2$\omega$ laser at the main-pulse, called as 4$\omega$ - 2$\omega$ ignition pulse. This novel design has the following advantages: (1) benefiting from 2$\omega$ of its relatively high energy output and low damage threshold during main-pulse, (2) benefiting from foam in its relatively high laser to x-ray conversion efficiency and relatively low M-band fraction in re-emission, (3) benefiting from 4$\omega$ of its low LPI during pre-pulse. From our 1D simulations with Au material, the laser to x-ray conversion in a foam driven by 4$\omega$ - 2$\omega$ pulse has an increase of $28\%$ as compared to a solid target driven by 3$\omega$ with the same pulse shape. The relatively thin optical depth of foam is one of the main reasons for the increase of laser to x-ray conversion efficiency inside a foam target.