Helmut J. Schwarz – författare

The 7th International Workshop in the series LASER INTERACTION AND RELATED PLASMA PHENOMENA continued the high standards established by the earlier meetings in this series. It was organized under the directorship of Heinrich Hora and George H. Miley at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, with Fred Schwirzke as the local organizer. These workshops have presented many "firsts" in laser plasma interactions and especially in laser fusion. Some presentations provided continuity with the past, most represented advancements; however, in some workshops, progress did not appear to be occurring as rapidly as in others. Therefore, it was a special pleasure that in the present workshop when, on October 30, 1985, Chiyoe Yamanaka disclosed a breakthrough in the generation of fusion neutrons with laser fusion targets. The 7th Workshop also continued to represent other new fields of laser-plasma interaction. The progress reported was most pronounced in the fields of X-ray lasers, laser acceleration of particles by electrostatic double layers in plasmas, and a particle beam technique to solve the geometric problem of muon-catalyzed fusion. The development of laser-plasma interactions at medium to high laser intensities may be seen in its whole complexity from a brief review of prior conferences. At the first Workshop in 1969, a comprehensive review of the field was presented by the speakers with the opening address by N.

Since the third Workshop on "Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena" in 1973, one area within the scope of this con­ ference received increased attention: laser fusion. This possi­ bility was emphasized in February 1977 in a Seminar on US energy policies at The Hartford Graduate Center by John F. O'Leary, Head of the Federal Energy Administration, who said that "by the year 2100, ••• laser fusion will be coming along, giving us a new age of choice". Efforts in research and development were stepped up to investigate new concepts of laser ignition of controlled nuclear reactions. Here, one expects no radioactive waste from fuel. Th~ deuterium-tritium reaction - the only one which may be possible with magnetic field confinement in tokamaks - has a highly radio­ active tritium cycle, while, in principle, laser reactions are possible with pure deuterium, hydrogen-boron or others. The worldwide progress in laser compression was not only stim­ ulated by the energy crisis, but also by its advancements. In our first Workshop in 1969 F. Floux of the French Limeil Laboratories described his experiments, which led, only one month later, to the production of fusion neutrons in such large numbers as had not been achieved up to then (see appendix of Vol. I these Proceedings).

As was the case in the two preceding workshops of 1969 and 1971, the Third Workshop on "Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena" held in 1973 was of international character. The main purpose was to review the advanced status of this particular and turbulent field of physics as it had developed vigorously in all major laboratories of the world since 1971. Due to recently accelerated advancements, it was hardly possible to present a com­ plete tutorial review; the subject is still in its premature stages and changing rapidly. A topical conference would have been too specific for a group of physicists with broad backgrounds working in the field or for those just about to enter it. It was the aim of the workshop and it is the aim of these proceedings to help this large group of scientists find their way within the highly complex and sometimes confusing results of a new field. We optimized the task of the workshop with extensive reviews on several topics and at the same time included more detailed infor­ mation for specialists. The differences in their conclusions were not a matter of contention but rather served to complement the advanced results. As in the preceding workshops, we directed our attention toward critical realism in respect to the complexity of the field. What is meant here is exemplified in the contribution by R. Sigel ~.667).