Next Generation Broadband Lasers in Radiation-Hydrodynamic Simulation

Broadband laser sources, with their unique ability to mitigate laser–plasma instability (LPI), hold the potential to outperform current laser-speckle smoothing systems. Their broad bandwidth disrupts LPI growth via temporal incoherence and reduces nonlinear interaction intensity, since the energy spreads across the broad spectrum. The on-target speckle forms due to the laser near-field aperture shape, and the speckle envelope is controlled using Fourier optics. The inherent reduction in coherence time, when coupled with adequate dispersion configurations, allows the time-averaged illumination to smooth the random speckle field on an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) target. This presentation delves into the implementation of the promising broadband laser sources in radiation-hydrodynamic simulations by modeling the on-target dynamic speckle evolution with overlapping beams. The simulation capability allows the exploration of different configurations on an imploding ICF target, offering exciting advancements in the field.