Laser plasma generation from a deuterium ice pellet freely falling within a superconducting magnetic bottle

Abstract

An experimental system is described for the production of an isolated plasma blob from a freely falling, isolated deuterium ice pellet by means of a high power giant laser pulse. A falling pellet which has dimensions ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 mm (with 5*10¹⁶-3*10¹⁸ atoms), is detached from the freezer head by gravity and is captured by the focused high power laser beam pulse after falling freely through about 10 cm. The plasma thus produced in a vacuum chamber is confined in a magnetic cusp or mirror field which is produced by a pair of superconducting coils.