Inflationary stimulated Raman scattering in shock-ignition plasmas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through particle-in-cell simulations that nonlinear kinetic effects cause inflationary stimulated Raman scattering (iSRS) in shock-ignition plasmas, exceeding fluid theory predictions and impacting fusion efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of inflationary SRS (iSRS) driven by kinetic effects in inhomogeneous plasmas relevant to shock-ignition fusion.

Findings

iSRS occurs over a wide range of density scale-lengths

Kinetic effects cause a nonlinear frequency shift leading to iSRS growth

Threshold intensity for iSRS onset is quantified

Abstract

In the shock-ignition inertial confinement fusion scheme, high-intensity lasers propagate through an inhomogeneous coronal plasma, driving a shock designed to cause fuel ignition. During the high-intensity ignitor laser pulse, SRS backscatter in the long scale-length coronal plasma is likely to be in the kinetic regime. In this work, we use one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to show that there is a non-linear frequency shift caused by kinetic effects, resulting in the growth of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) in an inhomogeneous plasma far exceeding the predictions of the fluid theory, so-called inflationary SRS or iSRS. We find that iSRS occurs over a wide range of density scale-lengths relevant to shock-ignition and other directly-driven inertial confinement fusion schemes. The presence of iSRS in shock-ignition plasmas has implications for the theoretical gains from shock-ignition inertial confinement fusion. Here we quantify the intensity threshold for the onset of iSRS for shock-ignition relevant parameters.