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The LICPA-driven collider—a novel efficient tool for the production of ultra-high pressures in condensed media

Generation of strong shock waves for the production of Mbar or Gbar pressures is a topic of high relevance for contemporary research in various domains, including inertial confinement fusion, laboratory astrophysics, planetology and material science. The pressures in the multi-Mbar range can be produced by the shocks generated using chemical explosions, light-gas guns, Z-pinch machines or lasers. Higher pressures, in the sub-Gbar or Gbar range are attainable only with nuclear explosions or laser-based methods. Unfortunately, due to the low efficiency of energy conversion from a laser to the shock (below a few percent), multi-kJ, multi-beam lasers are needed to produce such pressures with these methods. Here, we propose and investigate a novel scheme for generating high-pressure shocks which is much more efficient than the laser-based schemes known so far. In the proposed scheme, the shock is generated in a dense target by the impact of a fast projectile driven by the laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration (LICPA) mechanism. Using two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations and the measurements performed at the kilojoule PALS laser facility it is shown that in the LICPA-driven collider the laser-to-shock energy conversion efficiency can reach a very high value ∼ 15–20 % and, as a result, the shock pressure ∼ 0.5–1 Gbar can be produced using lasers of energy ⩽ 0.5 kJ. On the other hand, the pressures in the multi-Mbar range could be produced in this collider with low-energy (∼ 10 J) lasers available on the market. It would open up the possibility of conducting research in high energy-density science also in small, university-class laboratories.