The ion acoustic decay instability in a large scale, hot plasma relevant to direct drive laser fusion -- Application to a critical surface diagnostic. Final report

The authors have studied the ion acoustic decay instability in a large ({approximately} 1 mm) scale, hot ({approximately} 1 keV) plasma, which is relevant to a laser fusion reactor target. They have shown that the instability threshold is low. They have developed a novel collective Thomson scattering diagnostic at a 90{degree} scattering angle. The scattering is nonetheless coherent, because of the modest ratio of the frequency of the probe laser to that of the pump laser, such that even for such a large angle, (k{lambda}{sub De}){sup 2} is much less than one. With this system they have measured the electron plasma wave excited by the ion acoustic decay instability near the critical density (n{sub e} {approximately} 0.86 n{sub c}). This allows them to use the frequency of the detected wave to measure the electron temperature in the interaction region, obtaining a result reasonably close to that predicted by the SAGE computer code.