Janus user
Researcher, University of Rochester
Dustin Froula, a physics professor and researcher at the University of Rochester, has been an active JLF user since he was an undergraduate and graduate student. As an undergraduate, he worked with the (pre-JLF) Janus team to assemble a sonoluminescence experiment for measuring the conversion of sound into light using the advanced optical streak cameras at LLNL.
Froula later returned to LLNL while pursuing his PhD, pioneering Thomson scattering as a diagnostic to study laser‒plasma interactions on the Janus laser platform. These experiments decoupled the uncertainties in plasma conditions from the laser‒plasma instability physics, allowing a quantitative understanding of laser‒plasma propagation. Froula emphasizes the importance of studying laser‒plasma interactions to mitigate instabilities in many high-power laser experiments, such as inertial confinement fusion research at NIF, which requires the efficient propagation of laser light through a plasma.
The development of diagnostic techniques at JLF has enabled the University of Rochester to build its own Thomson-scattering instrument at its OMEGA Laser Facility, allowing users to produce routine data from one of the most challenging plasma physics diagnostics. Froula said, “Thanks to the early lessons learned at JLF, the OMEGA Operations Team routinely fields Thomson scattering on 40% of the facility’s annual shots.”
