Suppression of stimulated brillouin scattering by increased landau damping in multiple-ion-species hohlraum plasmas

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Mar 14;100(10):105001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.105001. Epub 2008 Mar 10.

Abstract

We demonstrate that multiple-ion-species plasmas greatly reduce stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in high-electron temperature inertial confinement fusion hohlraums. Landau damping is increased by adding hydrogen to a CO(2) gas filled hohlraum. We find that the SBS reflectivity decreases monotonically with increasing hydrogen fraction from 18% to 3% with a simultaneous increase of laser beam transmission. Detailed simulations with a 3D laser-plasma interaction code are in agreement with the experimentally observed reduction in backscattered light.