"Ultrahigh plasma acceleration by lasers possibly for nuclear energy without dangerous radiation."

"Sauerbrey’s measurement [1] of ultrahigh acceleration of plasma blocks by 1020 cm/s2 with ps laser pulses at very high intensity – confirmed by Földes et al. [2] – are 10,000 times higher than any acceleration with ns laser pulses. At ns, thermal pressure with losses and delays dominates the interaction, while the ps case is dominated by the instantly acting nonlinear (ponderomotive) force. The ps acceleration of 1020 cm/s2 was theoretically and numerically predicted in 1978 [3] (see p. 179). The mechanism is different from acceleration of ion beams due to relativistic self-focusing which has to be avoided using very high contrast ratio laser pulses. Based on the measurements [1,2] the mechanism of the ps acceleration in contrast to that with ns pulses can now be understood as the non-thermal >99% efficient transfer of optical energy into macroscopic motion of the irradiated electron cloud in the space charge neutral plasma, where the inertia is determined by the cloud of the attracted ions. After this plasma block acceleration has been clarified by several further measurements [4], this can be applied to the picosecond irradiation of uncompressed solid DT fusion fuel by side-on igniton [5] of a fusion flame. Computations for igniting solid density hydrogen-boron(11) is only less than 10 times more difficult and may lead to fusion energy production with less radioactivity than from burning coal [6]." [1] Sauerbrey R. Physics of Plasmas 3: 4712 (1996)[2] Földes I B, Bakos J S, Gal, K. et al. Laser Physics 10: 264 (2000)[3] Hora H Physics of Laser Driven Plasmas. New York: John Wiley 1981[4] Hora H., Badziak J., Jie Zhang, K. Jungwirth, K. Rohlena et al. Physics of Plasmas 14: 072701 (2007)[5] Hora H, Miley G H, Flippo K, Lalousis P et al. Laser and Particle Beams 29, 353 (2011)[6] Hora H, Miley G H, He X. et al.2010 Energy and Environmental Science 3: 479 (2010)[7] Hora H, Miley, G H, Yang X., Lalousis P. Astrophysics and Space Science 336: 225 (2011)