In the Inertial Confinement Fusion experiments (ICF), intense laser beams cross a gas filled hohlraum. The gas is fully ionized and laser beams then propagate into a sub-critical plasma where laser plasma instabilites can develop. Optical smoothing techniques enable to break both spatial and temporal coherences so that both spatial and temporal scales of the beam become smaller than those required for the development of the instabilites. The breaking of spatial coherence is done thanks to the use of a phase plate which spreads the laser energy in a multitude of light grains called speckles. The breaking of temporal coherence is done by using a phase modulator which widens the spectrum and by dispersing each frequency with a grating. It is essential to know the statistical properties of speckles (width, lenght, contrast, coherence time, velocities ...) to be able to predict the instabilities levels which can depend on time and on the distance of propagation of the beam. .
For the sake of simplicity, the laser plasma instabilities are very often studied at the best focus of the beam. However, in the FCI experiments, laser beams are focused near the laser entrance hole of the hohlraum whose length is about 1 cm. The development of instabilities can then occur before the best focus (outside the hohlraum) and mainly beyond the best focus (far inside the hohlraum). The goal of this post-doctoral contract is to study the development of instabilities when it occurs in the intermediate field (far from the best focus of the beam) and to assess the efficiency of different smoothing options on Lase MagaJoule (LMJ) to limit these instabilities. We will especially study propagation instabilities (self-focusing, forward stimulated Brillouin scattering) and stimulated Brillouin backscattering. This work will be done thanks to numerous existing numerical codes and diagnostic tolls.
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The control of the dynamic response of complex materials (foam, ceramic, metal, composite) subjected to intense solicitations (energy deposition, hypervelocity impact) is a major issue for many applications developed and carried out French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). In this context, CEA CESTA is developing mathematical models to depict the behavior of materials subjected to hypervelocity impacts. Thus, in the context of the ANR ASTRID SNIP (Numerical Simulation of Impacts in Porous Media) in collaboration with the IUSTI (Aix-Marseille Université), studies on the theme of modeling porous materials are conducted. They aim to develop innovative models that are more robust and overcome the theoretical deficits of existing methods (thermodynamic consistency, preservation of the entropy principle). In the context of this post-doc, the candidate will first do a literature review to understand the methods and models developed within IUSTI and CEA CESTA to understand their differences. Secondly, he will study the compatibility between the model developed at IUSTI and the numerical resolution methods used in the hydrodynamics computing code of the CEA CESTA. He will propose adaptations and improvements of this model to take into account all the physical phenomena that we want to capture (plasticity, shear stresses, presence of fluid inclusions, damage) and make its integration into the computation code possible. After a development phase, the validation of all this work will be carried out via comparisons with other existing models, as well as the confrontation with experimental results of impacts from the literature and from CEA database.
The postdoc will be based at the CELIA laboratory which develops studies on different patterns of inertial fusion by laser. In order to optimize the implosion of the target, the laser pulse is shaped spatially and temporally, in particular by a pre-pulse of a hundred picoseconds and intensity of a few hundred TW /cm2. However, the latter introduces spatial inhomogeneities to the surface and volume of the target, amplified by the initial solid behavior of matter. These fingerprints generated by the pre-pulse will degrade the symmetry of the target during its implosion, and therefore decrease the effectiveness of inertial confinement. At present, most models assume a plasma state from the beginning of the interaction, and are thus unable to account for certain experimental observations. To overcome this lack, we have just developed an original multi-physics simulation tool that includes the phase transition of a homogeneous material induced by the laser. In order to mitigate the laser imprint effect, a polystyrene foam (heterogeneous material) can be deposited on the surface of the target. The multiple optical reflections in the foam smooth the spatial profile of laser intensity, thus reducing absorption inhomogeneities. In order to reduce the influence of the laser fingerprint, the post-doctoral fellowship will aim to develop a microscopic model describing the evolution of the optical response of a foam during the solid-to-plasma transition. The first step of the work will be to couple the Helmholtz equation (describing laser propagation) to a solid transition model-plasma, and to study the influence of parameters. The second step will be to use an artificial intelligence algorithm (neural network) to optimize the optical response of the foam.
The post-doctorate corresponds to the context of flight tests of an instrumented vehicle (space shuttle, capsule or probe) which enters into the atmosphere. The aim is to reconstruct, from measurements (inertial unit, radar, meteorological balloon, etc.), the trajectory and various quantities of interest, in order to better understand the physical phenomena and to validate the predictive models. We focus on Bayesian statistics, associated with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. The post-doctoral fellow will develop and extend the proposed approach and will benefit from a scientific collaboration with Audrey Giremus, professor at the University of Bordeaux and specialist in the field. We will in particular try to increase the performance of high dimensional sampling. Special attention will be paid to the machine learning issue of the exploitation of an aerological database. The final objective will consist in developping an evolving software prototype dedicated to the post-flight analysis of flight tests, that exploits the various sources of information. The evaluations will be based on simulated and real data, with comparison to existing tools. The collaboration work will lead to scientific communications and publications.
Laser fusion facilities, like LMJ, require the use of large optical components. Some of them are large KDP or DKDP (KDP partially deuterated) plates extracted from single crystals.
Currently, DKDP single crystals are produced a by slow growth method were the growth time exceeds two years.
Here, we proposed to study a rapid growth method to reducing the growth time to a few months.