Laboratory generation of strong magnetic fields opens new frontiers in plasma and beam physics, astro- and solar-physics, materials science, and atomic and molecular physics. Although kilotesla magnetic fields have already been produced by magnetic flux compression using an imploding metal tube or plasma shell, accessibility at multiple points and better controlled shapes of the field are desirable. Here we have generated kilotesla magnetic fields using a capacitor-coil target, in which two nickel disks are connected by a U-turn coil. A magnetic flux density of 1.5 kT was measured using the Faraday effect 650 μm away from the coil, when the capacitor was driven by two beams from the GEKKO-XII laser (at 1 kJ (total), 1.3 ns, 0.53 or 1 μm, and 5 × 10¹⁶ W/cm²).

Opacity effects on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission from laser-produced tin (Sn) plasma have been experimentally investigated. An absorption spectrum of a uniform Sn plasma generated by thermal x rays has been measured in the EUV range (9–19 nm wavelength) for the first time. Experimental results indicate that control of the optical depth of the laser-produced Sn plasma is essential for obtaining high conversion to 13.5 nm-wavelength EUV radiation; 1.8% of the conversion efficiency was attained with the use of 2.2 ns laser pulses.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation from laser-produced plasma (LPP) has been thoroughly studied for application in mass production of next-generation semiconductor devices. One critical issue for the realization of an LPP-EUV light source for lithography is the conversion efficiency (CE) from incident laser power to EUV radiation of 13.5-nm wavelength (within 2% bandwidth). Another issue is solving the problem of damage caused when debris reaches an EUV collecting mirror. Here, we present an improved power balance model, which can be used for the optimization of laser and target conditions to obtain high CE. An integrated numerical simulation code has been developed for the target design. The code agrees well with experimental results not only for CE but also for detailed EUV spectral structure. We propose a two-pulse irradiation scheme for high CE, and reduced ion debris using a carbon dioxide laser and a droplet or a punch-out target. Using our benchmarked numerical simulation code, we find a possibility to obtain CE up to 6–7%, which is more than twice that achieved to date. We discuss the reduction of ion energy within the two-pulse irradiation scheme. The mitigation of energetic ions by a magnetic field is also discussed, and we conclude that no serious instability occurs due to large ion gyroradius.

Fast isochoric heating of a pre-compressed plasma core with a high-intensity short-pulse laser is an attractive and alternative approach to create ultra-high-energy-density states like those found in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ignition sparks. Laser-produced relativistic electron beam (REB) deposits a part of kinetic energy in the core, and then the heated region becomes the hot spark to trigger the ignition. However, due to the inherent large angular spread of the produced REB, only a small portion of the REB collides with the core. Here, we demonstrate a factor-of-two enhancement of laser-to-core energy coupling with the magnetized fast isochoric heating. The method employs a magnetic field of hundreds of Tesla that is applied to the transport region from the REB generation zone to the core which results in guiding the REB along the magnetic field lines to the core. This scheme may provide more efficient energy coupling compared to the conventional ICF scheme.

Laser plasma interactions in a relativistic parameter regime have been intensively investigated for studying the possibility of fast ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Using ultra-intense laser systems and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation codes, relativistic laser light self-focusing, super hot electrons, ions, and neutron production, are studied. The experiments are performed with ultra-intense laser with 50 J energy, 0.5–1 ps pulse at 1053 nm laser wavelength at a laser intensity of ${10}^{19} {\mathrm{W/cm}}^2.$ Most of the laser shots are studied under preformed plasma conditions with a 100 μm plasma scale length condition. In the study of laser pulse behavior in the preformed plasmas, a special mode has been observed which penetrated the preformed plasma all the way very close to the original planar target surface. On these shots, super hot electrons have been observed with its energy peak exceeding 1 MeV. The energy transport of the hot electrons has been studied with making use of $\mathrm{K\alpha }$ emissions from a seeded metal layer in planar targets. The details of ion acceleration followed by beam fusion reaction have been studied with neutron spectrometers. Laser ponderomotive force self-focusing and hot electron generation have been applied to a compressed core to see the effect of heating by injecting 12 beams of 100 ps, 1 TW pulses.