Experimental room temperature hohlraum performance study on the National Ignition Facility [Experimental evidence for improved performance in room temperature hohlraums on the National Ignition Facility]
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Room temperature or “warm” (273 K) indirect drive hohlraum experiments have been conducted on the National Ignition Facility with laser energies up to 1.26 MJ and compared to similar cryogenic or “cryo” (~20 K) experiments. Warm experiments use neopentane (C5H12) as the low pressure hohlraum fill gas instead of helium, and propane (C3H8) to replace the cryogenic DT or DHe3 capsule fill. The increased average Z of the hohlraum fill leads to increased inverse bremsstrahlung absorption and an overall hotter hohlraum plasma in simulations. The cross beam energy transfer (CBET) from outer laser beams (pointed toward the laser entrance hole) to inner beams (pointed at the equator) was inferred indirectly from measurements of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS). These experiments show that a similar hot spot self-emission shape can be produced with less CBET in warm hohlraums. The measured inner cone SRS reflectivity (as a fraction of incident power neglecting CBET) is ~2.5× less in warm than cryo shots with similar hot spot shapes, due to a less need for CBET. The measured outer-beam stimulated the Brillouin scattering power that was higher in the warm shots, leading to a ceiling on power to avoid the optics damage. These measurements also show that the CBET induced by the flow where the beams cross can be effectively mitigated by a 1.5 Å wavelength shift between the inner and outer beams. A smaller scale direct comparison indicates that warm shots give a more prolate implosion than cryo shots with the same wavelength shift and pulse shape. Lastly, the peak radiation temperature was found to be between 5 and 7 eV higher in the warm than the corresponding cryo experiments after accounting for differences in backscatter.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1357352
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1360937
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL--703037
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 23; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
The influence of hohlraum dynamics on implosion symmetry in indirect drive inertial confinement fusion experiments
|
journal | August 2018 |
Understanding ICF hohlraums using NIF gated laser-entrance-hole images
|
journal | February 2020 |
Similar Records
Understanding and controlling capsule symmetry in near vacuum hohlraums at the National Ignition Facility