Laser plasmas and nuclear energy

1. Introduction.- 1.1 Nuclear Fusion.- 1.2 Laser-Produced Nuclear Fusion.- 2. Lasers.- 2.1 Laser Condition.- 2.2 Operation of Lasers.- 2.3 Available Lasers.- 3. Early Measurements and Gas Breakdown.- 3.1 Gas Breakdown.- 3.2 Plasmas Produced from Solids in Vacuum (Linlor Effect).- 4. Microscopic Properties of Plasma.- 4.1 Debye Length.- 4.2 Plasma Frequency.- 4.3 Collisions.- 5. Macroscopic Plasma Physics.- 5.1 Ohm's Law and Electromagnetic Waves.- 5.2 Equation of Motion and Equations of Conservation.- 5.3 Homogeneous Heating.- 6. Refractive Index and Absorption.- 6.1 Linear Properties.- 6.2 Nonlinear Absorption.- 6.3 Relativistic Absorption.- 6.4 Anomalous Absorption and Instabilities.- 7. Dielectric Nonlinear Forces and Dynamic Absorption.- 7.1 Basic Properties of the Dielectric Nonlinear Force.- 7.2 Transferred Momentum and Ion Energies.- 7.3 Predominance of the Nonlinear Force.- 7.4 Self-Focusing of Laser Beams in Plasma.- 7.5 Numerical Examples of Nonlinear Acceleration.- 8. Theory of Laser-Induced Nuclear Fusion.- 8.1 Inertial Confinement.- 8.2 Gas-Dynamic Compression.- 8.3 Direct and More Efficient Transfer of Laser Energy into Mechanical Compression.- 8.4 New Concepts and Nuclear Fission.- 9. Experiments for Laser-Induced Nuclear Fusion.- 9.1 Irradiation of Spherical Targets.- 9.2 Neutron Generation.- 9.3 Anomalous Experimental Results.- 10. Conclusions.- 11. References.- 12. Appendix. List of Reprinted Papers.- "The Conditions of Plasma Heating by the Optical Quantum Generator.".- "Experiments on the Observation of Neutron Emission at the Focus of High-power Laser Radiation on a Lithium Deuteride Surface.".- "Ion Energies Produced by Laser Giant Pulse.".- "The Initial Stage of the Laser-induced Gas Breakdown.".- "Experiments on Self-focusing in Laser-produced Plasmas.".- "Intense Electron Emission from Laser-produced Plasmas.".- "Experimental Result of Free Targets.".- "On the Production of a Plasma by Giant Laser Pulses.".- "Some Results of the Self-similarity Model.".- "Hydrogen Plasma Production by Giant Pulse Lasers.".- "Optical Constants of Fullyionized Hydrogen Plasma for Laser Radiation.".- "Laser-Induced Instabilities and Anomalous Absorption in Dense Plasmas.".- "Nonlinear Confining and Deconfining Forces Associated with the Interaction of Laser Radiation with a Plasma.".- "Ponderomotive Forces on Laser-produced Plasmas.".- "Nonlinear Forces in Laser-produced Plasmas.".- "Physical Mechanisms for Laser-Plasma Parametric Instabilities.".- "Laser-Induced Implosion and Thermonuclear Burn.".- "Exact Steady-state Analogy of Transient Gas Compression by Coalescing Waves.".- "Laser-driven Implosion of Spherical DT Targets to Thermonuclear Burn Conditions.".- "Nuclear Fusion Reactions in Laser-produced Solid Deuterium Plasmas.".- "Heating of Laser Plasmas for Thermonuclear Fusion.".- "Neutron Generation in Spherical Irradiation of a Target by High-power Laser Radiation.".- "Anomalous Heating of a Plasma by Lasers.".- "Neutron Emission from Laser-produced Plasmas.".- "Saturation of Stimulated Back-scattered Radiation in Laser Plasmas.".- "Pair Production by Relativistic Electrons from an Intense Laser Focus.".- 13. Subject Index.