Laser-plasma interaction physics for shock ignition

Laser Plasma-initiated Ignition of Engines

Laser ignition is considered to be one of the most promising future ignition concepts for internal combustion engines. It combines the legally required reduction of pollutant emissions and higher engine efficiencies. The igniting plasma is generated by a focussed pulsed laser beam. Having pulse durations of a few nanoseconds, the pulse energy Ep for reliable ignition amounts to the order of 10 ...

Laser physics and laser-tissue interaction.

Within the last few years, lasers have gained increasing use in the management of cardiovascular disease, and laser angioplasty has become a widely performed procedure. For this reason, a basic knowledge of lasers and their applications is essential to vascular surgeons, cardiologists, and interventional radiologists. To elucidate some fundamental concepts regarding laser physics, we describe h...

Relativistic Plasma Physics at the National Ignition Facility

OV/4-1 Plasma Physics Study and Laser Development for the Fast Ignition Realization Experiment (FIREX) Project

H. Azechi, K. Mima, Y. Fujimoto, S. Fujioka, H. Homma, T. Jitsuno, T. Johzaki, M. Koga, J. Kawanaka, N. Miyanaga, M. Murakami, H. Nagatomo, K. Nagai, M. Nakai, T. Nakamura, K. Nishihara, H. Nishimura, T. Norimatsu, K. Shigemori, H. Shiraga, K. Tsubakimoto Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka Univ., 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 Japan e-mail: [email protected] A. Iwamoto, T. Mito...

Mathematical Models for Laser-plasma Interaction

We address here mathematical models related to the Laser-Plasma Interaction. After a simplified introduction to the physical background concerning the modelling of the laser propagation and its interaction with a plasma, we recall some classical results about the geometrical optics in plasmas. Then we deal with the well known paraxial approximation of the solution of the Maxwell equation; we st...