Physics of laser plasma interaction and particle transport in the context of inertial confinement fusion

Abstract

Lasers are unique tools for transporting extremely high powers over large distances, but transfer of such a power from photons to matter in small volumes is a very complicated problem. First of all, the interaction proceeds very far from equilibrium, as with photons having energy of a few electron-volts one would like to heat plasma to temperatures thousand times higher. Second, these processes are strongly nonlinear, as they correspond to transfer energies of a large number of photons to a much smaller number of charged particles in extremely small volumes and in very short time scales. Research in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) gave a strong push for studying all these processes in detail, and now, although many issues remain to be resolved, we have quite a good understanding of how they operate in ICF conditions and what limitations and advantages they offer. In this short review, I share my personal recollections of almost 50 years history of the physics of laser plasma interaction. Understanding of highly nonlinear microscopic processes allowed us to improve the hydrodynamic performance of ICF targets and to foresee future developments. The key point is that multiscale modeling allowed for the retainment of major elements of microscopic physics in macroscopic hydrodynamic codes and make them more accurate and predictive.