Three dimensional modeling of Laser-Plasma interaction: benchmarking our predictive modeling tools vs. experiments

We have developed a new target platform to study Laser Plasma Interaction in ignition-relevant condition at the Omega laser facility (LLE/Rochester)[1]. By shooting an interaction beam along the axis of a gas-filled hohlraum heated by up to 17 kJ of heater beam energy, we were able to create a millimeter-scale underdense uniform plasma at electron temperatures above 3 keV. Extensive Thomson scattering measurements allowed us to benchmark our hydrodynamic simulations performed with HYDRA[2]. As a result of this effort, we can use with much confidence these simulations as input parameters for our LPI simulation code pF3d[3]. In this paper, we show that by using accurate hydrodynamic profiles and full three-dimensional simulations including a realistic modeling of the laser intensity pattern generated by various smoothing options, whole beam three-dimensional linear kinetic modeling of stimulated Brillouin scattering reproduces quantitatively the experimental measurements(SBS thresholds, reflectivity values and the absence of measurable SRS). This good agreement was made possible by the recent increase in computing power routinely available for such simulations. These simulations accurately predicted the strong reduction of SBS measured when polarization smoothing is used