Fast-Ion Generation by Ion-Acoustic Turbulence in Spherical Laser Plasmas

Abstract

Numerical hydrodynamic simulations which include absorption and transport modifications due to ion-acoustic turbulence have been performed. These simulations can reproduce the important features of the fast-ion velocity distributions as measured with biased charge collectors and a magnetic spectrograph in spherically illuminated microballoon experiments. Experiments with hemispherical targets show that a substantial amount of fast-ion energy is directed inward and may contribute to driving the implosion.