A polar-drive shock-ignition design for the National Ignition Facility

Journal Article · Wed May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4804635· OSTI ID:22228101

Anderson, K. S.; McKenty, P. W.; Collins, T. J. B.; Craxton, R. S.; Delettrez, J. A.; Marozas, J. A.; Skupsky, S.; Shvydky, A. ^[1]; Betti, R. ^[1]; Hohenberger, M.; Theobald, W.; Lafon, M.; Nora, R. ^[1]

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1. Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)

Shock ignition [R. Betti et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 155001 (2007)] is being pursued as a viable option to achieve ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Shock-ignition target designs use a high-intensity laser spike at the end of a low-adiabat assembly pulse to launch a spherically convergent strong shock to ignite the hot spot of an imploding capsule. A shock-ignition target design for the NIF is presented. One-dimensional simulations indicate an ignition threshold factor of 4.1 with a gain of 58. A polar-drive beam-pointing configuration for shock-ignition experiments on the NIF at 750 kJ is proposed. The capsule design is shown to be robust to the various one- and two-dimensional effects and nonuniformities anticipated on the NIF. The target is predicted to ignite with a gain of 38 when including all anticipated levels of nonuniformity and system uncertainty.

• OSTI ID: 22228101
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CAPSULES
DESIGN
GAIN
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
INERTIAL FUSION DRIVERS
LASER IMPLOSIONS
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
NEODYMIUM LASERS
PLASMA SIMULATION
SHOCK WAVES
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
THERMONUCLEAR IGNITION
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
US NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY