Carbon ablator areal density at fusion burn: Observations and trends at the National Ignition Facility

Meaney, Kevin Daniel; Kim, Yong Ho; Geppert-Kleinrath, Hermann; Herrmann, Hans W.; Hopkins, Laura Berzak; Hoffman, Nelson M.; Cerjan, Charles J.; Landen, Otto L.; Baker, K.; Carrera, Jorge A.; Mariscal, Eddie

doi:10.1063/1.5139913

Title: Carbon ablator areal density at fusion burn: Observations and trends at the National Ignition Facility

Journal Article · Mon May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5139913· OSTI ID:1650630

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

For inertial confinement fusion experiments, the pusher is composed of a high-density deuterium tritium cyrogenic fuel layer and an ablator, often made of carbon. In an ideal, no-mix implosion, increasing the areal density of the pusher transfers more pressure to the hot spot and increases the hot spot confinement time. There has been a lack of knowledge about the final compressed state of the ablator for implosions at the National Ignition Facility. 14 MeV fusion neutrons inelastically scattering on the remaining carbon ablator excites a nuclear metastable state that emits a prompt 4.4 MeV gamma ray. The gamma reaction history diagnostic data, when reduced by a new data analysis technique, can isolate and measure the carbon gamma rays, which are proportional to the areal density of the ablator during fusion burn. The trends over many National Ignition Facility campaigns show that the ablator areal density is weakly sensitive to the maximum shell velocity, the cold fuel radius, the ablator mass remaining, or the laser picket intensity. Controlled parameter scans reveal that, for specific campaigns, ablator compression has a strong dependence on laser coast time, high Z dopants, and the laser drive foot duration. Using a model of the compressed ablator density profile reveals that the greatest variation of the ablator areal density comes from its thickness, with highly compressed, thin layers having high areal density values. The compression and thickness of the ablator are other metrics that designers should understand to differentiate the types of capsule degradation and maximize the inertial confinement fusion performance.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1650630

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1617085

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-19-31789; TRN: US2202630

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 27, Issue 5; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 10 works

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References (38)

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Title: Carbon ablator areal density at fusion burn: Observations and trends at the National Ignition Facility

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