Abstract

Efficient absorption of the laser light by the underdense plasma is required for laser driven inertial confinement fusion. However, undesirable parametric instabilities such as stimulated Raman scattering can originate in the underdense region. This will be particularly true for future reactor targets which, being imploded by relatively long laser pulses, will have substantial regions of underdense plasma for the incident laser light to negotiate a great variety of nonlinear effects.

© 1986 Optical Society of America