Direct-drive, hollow-shell implosion studies on the 60-beam, UV OMEGA laser system
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Rd., Rochester, New York 14623-1299 (United States)
Direct-drive implosion experiments have been performed on the University of Rochester's 60-beam, 30 kJ, UV (351 nm) OMEGA [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] laser system to investigate the conditions at maximum compression of polymer-shell targets with zero- or low-pressure ({<=}3 atm) gas fills. By using deuterium-bearing shells (CD), the imploded-core conditions have been diagnosed with both x-ray and neutron spectral measurements. The core electron temperature (kT{sub e}) and shell areal density ({rho}R{sub shell}) are determined from the emergent x-ray spectrum, while independent inferences of {rho}R{sub shell} are obtained from the measured primary (DD) and secondary (DT) neutron yields. Target performance was investigated for a range of beam-smoothing conditions [none to 0.25 THz-bandwidth smoothing by spectral dispersion along two dimensions (2-D SSD)] and a set of pulse shapes (1 ns square pulse to a 2.5 ns pulse with a 1:40 foot-to-main-pulse power ratio). The results have conclusively demonstrated the ability to compress targets to shell areal densities in the range of {approx}60 to 130 mg/cm{sup 2}. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.
- OSTI ID:
- 20215459
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Mar 2000; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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