Fast and efficient plasma heating through superelastic laser energy conversion

Abstract

Superelastic laser energy conversion has been shown to be capable of extremely rapid rates of plasma heating with relatively modest values of laser irradiance. In the case of a boron III plasma, dTe /dt≳1013 °K sec−1 has been predicted for a initial boron III ion density of 1017 cm−3. The laser irradiance needed to achieve this rate of change of the free-electron temperature is about 5×108 W cm−2 per cm of path length.