Wydział Fizyki, Politechnika Warszawska

Współczesne problemy fizyki

Wykład 2

Laserowa synteza jądrowa i akceleracja cząstek naładowanych

Henryk Fiedorowicz

Instytut Optoelektroniki,
Wojskowa Akademia Techniczna,
Warszawa

Warszawa, 01.03.2023

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 Increase of laser intensity over the laser history

PW fs
(1015 W)

TW
(1012 W)

ns

GW
(109 W)

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 Application of high-power pulsed lasers

Phenomena Relevance
Quantum electrodynamics Electron-positron pair production.
EW Boiling the vacuum.
(1018 W)
Compton scattering Gamma ray source.
as
Radiation pressure acceleration Compact proton accelerators .
PW
(1015 W) Laser wakefield acceleration Compact electron accelerators.
fs Hard X-ray sources.
Nonlinear optics High-order harmonic generation
TW
(coherent soft X-rays and EUV).
(1012 W)
Filamentation.
ns Laser-produced plasma Laser fusion.
GW Soft X-ray and EUV sources.
(109 W) Laser gas breakdown Laser ignition.
LIBS.
Laser ablation of solids Laser machining and patterning.

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 Laser nuclear fusion

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 Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei come close enough to
form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons).
The difference in mass between the products and reactants makes the release of
large amounts of energy. This difference in mass is caused by the difference in
atomic „binding energy” between the atomic nuclei before and after the reaction.
Fusion is the process that powers active stars.

Fusion of deuterium with tritium creating helium-4,

freeing a neutron, and releasing 17.59 MeV as kinetic
energy of the products while a corresponding amount of
mass disappears, in agreement with kinetic E = Δmc2,
where Δm is the decrease in the total rest mass of
particles.

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 Nuclear Fusion

Repulsion of the positively charged nuclei The fusion reaction rate

because of the electrostatic force. increases rapidly with
temperature.
The quantum effect will tunnel through the wall
when the separation is small enough. The DT rate peaks at lower
temperature and higher value than
other reactions considered for
fusion energy.

Lawson criterion

n  31014 scm3
Plasma

Plasma confinement and heating

are needed to achieving fusion
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 Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion is achieved in a confined high-temperature plasma

Stars are so massive On Earth nuclear fusion does not happen

that they rely on naturally, so we rely mainly on two
approaches

Gravitational Magnetic Inertial

confinement confinement confinement

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 Magnetic confinement

Magnetic mirror Magnetic mirror plasma trap

Particle Magnetic Field
Motion
B-Field
Current

Particle
Motion Current

Superconducting version of the baseball coil Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) in 1979

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 Magnetic confinement

Tokamak

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 Tokamak

Central solenoid
Toroidal magnetic
field coils Poloidal magnetic
field coils

Plasma
Vacuum vessel
Magnetic lines of Plasma current,
force Toroidal magnetic
field directions

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 COMPASS Tokamak

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 Joint European Torus (JET)

On 21 December 2021, using deuterium-tritium fuel,

JET produced 59 megajoules during a 5s pulse
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 Magnetic confinement fusion

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 ITER

ITER (ang. International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor –

Międzynarodowy Eksperymentalny Reaktor Termonuklearny)
An international project based in France in 2007 and now has seven partners: China, the European
Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States with a budget of Euro 18 billion

ITER web site ITER - the way to new energy

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 ITER

JET and ITER tokamak sizes comparison

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 ITER

Location of ITER

Centre d'études nucléaires de Cadarche, CENC

April 2017

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 ITER

March 2019

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 ITER

May 2022
Installation of the first sub-section of the ITER plasma chamber

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 ITER

General diagram of the ITER tokamak

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 ITER web site – general information
What is ITER?

WHAT IS ITER?
WHAT WILL ITER DO?
WHAT IS FUSION?
WHAT IS A TOKAMAK?
WHO IS PARTICIPATING IN ITER?
WHEN WILL EXPERIMENTS BEGIN?

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 ITER web site - education
ITER International School

12th ITER International School:

The Impact and Consequences of
Energetic Particles on Fusion
21 Plasmas - Sciencesconf.org
 ITER web site – summer schools

ITER International School

SUMMER SCHOOLS SUMMER SCHOOLS

CAROLUS SCHOOL KARLSRUHE SCHOOL
CULHAM SCHOOL KUDOWA SCHOOL
FESTIVAL DE LA THEORIE MEPHI SCHOOL
IPFN PLASMASURF PFURO
IPP PHDIAFUSION
IPP CZECH REPUBLIC PPPL GSS
IPR INDIA ST PETERSBURG SCHOOL
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 ITER web site – Culham Summer School

Culham Plasma Physics Summer School (iter.org)

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 ITER web site – Kudowa Summer School
Kudowa Summer School - Home (ipplm.pl)

The Kudowa Summer School is organized by the Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser
Microfusion (IPPLM) and the International Centre for Dense Magnetised Plasma (ICDMP).

The next school will take place in 2024 with a focus on novel plasma diagnostics techniques
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 ITER web site – PhD programs

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

ERASMUS MUNDUS

FUSENET

IAEA FELLOWSHIPS FOR WOMEN

MONACO/ITER POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS

OTHER ITER POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS

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 Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF)

ICF concept

Target Compression Implossion Burn

irradiation

Laser beams or laser- Fuel is compressed by During the final part of Thermonuclear
produced X-rays the rocket-like blowoff of the capsule implosion, burn spreads
rapidly heat the the hot surface material. the fuel core reaches 20 rapidly through
surface of the fusion times the density of lead the compressed
target, forming a and ignites at fuel, yielding
surrounding plasma 100,000,000 ˚C. many times the
input energy.

Inwardly transported
Driver beam Blowoff thermal energy
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 Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF)

Teller–Ulam configuration

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 Nuclear Fusion

Ivy Mike Test - demonstration of ICF -

Operation Ivy (nuclearweaponarchive.org)

A view of the Sausage device casing, with its

instrumentation and cryogenic equipment
attached.

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 Laser Nuclear Fusion

Principle of laser nuclear fusion

Implosion Ignition Burning

High-powered lasers irradiate the The implosion plasma is heated to Igniting the fusion fuel causes the
fusion fuel from all directions forming 100 million degrees (centigrade) by nuclear fuel to combust. This cycle
a high-temperature plasma whose powerful lasers of 1 quadrillion watts repeats about 10 times per second
density becomes 1,000 times of solid or more before it disperses. and the energy generated in this way
density. is converted to electricity.

Fast ignition
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 Laser Nuclear Fusion

Direct drive
Indirect drive

Laser
fusion
target

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 Laser Nuclear Fusion

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

San Francisco
– 40 km

NIF
facility
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 Laser Nuclear Fusion at LLNL

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 NOVA Laser Facility (1985-1999)

100 kJ at 1054 nm,

40-45 kJ at 351 nm
2 - 4 ns

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 National Ignition Facility (NIF)

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the largest and most

energetic ICF device built to date, and the largest laser in the world.

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 National Ignition Facility (NIF)

NIF Building Layout

Laser bay

Laser beam
switchyard

192 laser beams

Target
chamber
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 National Ignition Facility (NIF)

Schematic of the NIF beampath

Glass optics Glass optics KAP cristal

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 National Ignition Facility (NIF)

NIF laser bay 2

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 National Ignition Facility (NIF)

NIF web site How NIF Works (llnl.gov)

NIF target chamber

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 National Ignition Facility (NIF)
National Ignition Facility achieves fusion ignition | Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (llnl.gov)

LLNL’s experiment surpassed the

fusion threshold by delivering
2.05 MJ of energy to the target,
resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion
energy output, demonstrating
for the first time a most
fundamental science basis for
inertial fusion energy (IFE).

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 CEA Laser Megajoule (LMJ)

Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) is a large

laser-based inertial confinement
fusion (ICF) research device near
Bordeaux France, built by the French
nuclear science directorate,
Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique
(CEA).

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 CEA Laser Megajoule (LMJ)

LMJ is a flash-lamp-pumped neodymium-doped glass laser (1.053 µm wavelength) configured in

a multi-pass power amplifier system. The 1.053 µm light is frequency converted to the third harmonic
(0.351 µm) and focused, by means of gratings, on a target at the center of the target chamber. Once
fully commissioned, with 176 beams (44 quads) operational, LMJ will deliver shaped pulses from
0.7 ns to 25 ns with a maximum energy of 1.3 MJ and a maximum power of 400 TW of UV light on the
target.

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 CEA Laser Megajoule (LMJ)

Laser Bay

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 CEA Laser Megajoule(LMJ)

Architecture of one LMJ beamline.

The basic unit for experiment is a quad made of 4 identical beamlines.

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 CEA Laser Megajoule (LMJ)

Target Chamber

38 m

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 CEA Laser Megajoule (LMJ)

Implementation of PETAL in the LMJ facility

EL  1 kJ
L  100 fs
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 Gekko XII Laser System

Gekko XII laser system at ILE, Osaka

1-4ns/10kJ/single shot

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 Laser Fusion in Russia

N. G. Basov and O. N. Krokhin, “Conditions of Plasma Heating by

Optical Generator Radiation,” Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 45, 171 (1964)
FIAN

N. G. Basov

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 Laser Fusion in Russia

Papa Dragon Sat photo of UFL-2M laser system under

Mon, Feb 05, 2018 2:44 pm construction in Sarov

UFL-2M to 192-kanałowy laser na ciele stałym ze szkła

neodymowego o wielkości wiązki 400 × 400 mm2.
Instalacja będzie zlokalizowana na terenie technoparku
Sarov i zajmie powierzchnię porównywalną z dwoma
boiskami piłkarskimi i będzie miała mniej więcej
wysokość 10-piętrowego budynku. Oczekuje się, że do
czasu uruchomienia elektrowni będzie ona największa
na świecie. Planowana wydajność energetyczna UFL-
2M to 4,6 MJ na wyjściu i 2,8 MJ na tarczy.
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 Laser Nuclear Fusion

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 Electric Energy Power Plants

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 Laser Fusion in Poland

Instytut FizykiPlazmy i Laserowej Mikrosyntezy

Gen. Prof. Sylwester Kaliski

(1925 – 1978)

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 Laser Fusion in Poland

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 Laser Fusion in Poland

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 Laser Fusion in Poland

4-beam Nd-glass laser system Laser spherical compression Glass microballoon

Experimental setup

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 Laser Fusion in Poland

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56
 Laser-driven particle acceleration

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 Laser Plasma Accelerators

LINAC
(LINear Accelerator)

RF Cavity Plasma Cavity

1 m => 50 MeV Gain 1mm => 100 MeV

58 Electric field < 100 MV/m Electric field > 100 GV/m
 Ship wake wave

Thomson, W. (1887). On Ship Waves.

Wake wave behind a tanker Tanker surfing

Texas Tanker Foil Surfing - YouTube

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 Laser-driven plasma wakefield

Interaction of high-intensity ultra-short laser pulse with plasma - simulation

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 Laser-driven plasma wakefield

Tajima, Dawson
(1979)

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 Laser electron acceleration demonstration

C. G. R. Geddes et al., Nature 431, 538 (2004).

S. P. D. Mangles et al., Nature 431, 535 (2004).
J. Faure et al., Nature 431, 541 (2004).

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 Laser electron acceleration demonstration

Acceleration in a gas jet

A typical arrangement of an experiment on
laser-driven plasma acceleration

Plasma
Laser Electron
beam

Gas jet
nozzle
Acceleration in a plasma channel

Magnet

Electron beam Phosphor

screen

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 Laser-driven acceleration at CoReLS

3 GeV electron beam with a dual-stage gas target

Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 165002(2014)

Gas puff targets

developed at IOE
were used

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 Route to 100 GeV and 1 TeV

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 Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP)

The Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) collided electrons with positrons

at energies that reached 209 GeV.
It was a circular collider with a circumference of 27 kilometres built in a tunnel
passing through Switzerland and France. LEP was used from 1989 until 2000.
To date, LEP is the most powerful accelerator of leptons ever built.

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 Concept of a 2 TeV electron-positron collider

Electron–positron collider based on laser-driven plasma acceleration

Leemans and Esarey - 2009

A 2-TeV electron–positron collider based on laserdriven plasma acceleration might be less than 1 km
long. Its electron arm could be a string of 100 acceleration modules, each with its own laser. A 30-J laser
pulse drives a plasma wave in each module’s 1-m-long capillary channel of preformed plasma
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 Laser-driven ion acceleration

Target Normal Sheet Acceleration (TNSA)

Micron-thick target

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 Laser-driven ion acceleration

TNSA beam properties

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 Laser-driven ion acceleration

TNSA – ion energy scaling beam properties

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 Laser-driven ion acceleration

Acceleration mechanisms

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 Laser-driven ion acceleration

Acceleration mechanisms

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 Laser-accelerated proton application

Proton pulsed radiography of laser-produced plasmas

Hohlraum RCF
Proton Target stack
Target

Proton
Radiogram
Laser
(ns)
Laser
(fs)

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 Radiotherapy with proton beams

Radiation ranges in radiotherapy

Proton Energy
70 to 250 MeV

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 Bronowice Proton Therapy Center

Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN, Kraków

Proteus C-235 proton cyclotron

Monoenergetic beam of protons in the

energy range between 70 MeV and 230 MeV,
and currents between 1 nA and 500 nA

Gantry

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 Proton therapy with a laser-driven proton accelerator

Schematic of a radiotherapy gantry system for a novel compact laser

driven ion beam therapy

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 Laser-driven ion accelerator for radiotherapy

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 Laser-driven neutron generation

Neutrons are a unique tool to probe and alter material properties

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 Laser-driven neutron generation

Laser-driven neutron source

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 Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)

The quantum vacuum is not empty

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 Application in QE

Spontaneous electron-positron pair production

in a strong static electric field

Schwinger limit Es=1.3 1016 V/cm Is = 2.3  1029 W/cm2

e- +
Pulsed Laser Pulsed Laser

+ e+

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 Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)

Something from Nothing G. Mourou

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 Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)

Something from Nothing G. Mourou

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 Summary

Application of high-intensity and high-energy lasers

• laser nuclear fusion

• laser-driven particle acceleration

• quantum electrodynamics

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