Plasma Production with a Multibeam Laser System Available to Purchase

A multibeam laser system has been used to produce spherical plasmas whose energies and growth rates have been compared with the results of machine computations. The laser system is designed to provide twelve simultaneous laser pulses that can be focused symmetrically on a common point in a gas‐filled target chamber. Under typical operating conditions, a total energy of about 2 J in approximately 10 nsec was directed at targets of deuterium, hydrogen, and helium at atmospheric pressure. A multiple pulse schlieren system, utilizing light from the laser oscillator, was used to measure the growth rates of the shock waves associated with the expanding plasmas. The data were compared with computational results obtained using a one‐dimensional machine code which treats the formation, heating, and hydrodynamic development of laser‐produced plasmas. The measured growth rates are found to be in quite good agreement with the computed results and with the behavior expected on the basis of Taylor's blast wave theory.