Laser-plasma interaction experiments in the context of inertial fusion

In laser fusion, the coupling and the propagation of the laser beams in the plasma surrounding the pellet must be well controlled for to succeed in producing a high energy level. To achieve thermonuclear ignition and high gain, the coupling efficiency must be as high as possible, the uniformity of the energy deposition must be very good and the fast electron generation must be minimized. This implies a deep understanding of the laser-plasma interaction mechanisms to keep the nonlinear processes at a low level. Important advances in laser-plasma interaction physics have been achieved thanks to the converging efforts of the experimental and theoretical approaches. Among the different studies of the last few years, we will report results on three themes which are important for future fusion experiments. The first concerns the ability of plasmas to induce temporal and spatial incoherence to the laser beams during their propagation. Beam smoothing, beam spraying and increased incoherence may in turn reduce the level of backscattering instabilities. In laser fusion, multiple beams are used to irradiate the target. The effect of the overlap of the laser beams on parametric instabilities may complicate the problem. Not only is there the interplay between instabilities driven by one beam, but also the interplay between instabilities driven by different beams. In the Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI) experiment, although the overall stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) reflectivity was reduced, a well-defined resonance of the amplitude of ion acoustic waves (IAWs) associated with SBS has been observed for waves propagating along the bisecting direction between two laser beams. Energy transfer between two identical laser beams has been observed and correlated with plasma induced incoherence. The nonlinear saturation of stimulated scattering instabilities is a fundamental ingredient of the understanding of the observed and future reflectivity levels. Using Thomson scattering, the decay of the primary IAWs associated with SBS in secondary IAWs has been observed and correlated with the saturation of SBS. The experiments were performed with the six-beam laser facility of the LULI at Ecole Polytechnique, using one or two 1.053 mum interaction beams in the nanosecond regime and a well-characterized preformed plasma. Multiple diagnostics, including Thomson scattering of a probe beam with spatial, temporal and spectral resolution, were used. The comparison between the experimental results and numerical simulations is used to improve the physics included in the codes.