skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Direct-drive laser target designs for sub-megajoule energies

Abstract

New direct-drive laser target designs with KrF laser light take advantage of the shorter wavelength to lower the laser energy required for substantial gain (>30x) to sub-MJ level. These low laser-energy pellets are useful in systems that could form an intermediate step towards fusion energy, such as the proposed Fusion Test Facility [S. P. Obenschain et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 056320 (2006)]. The short wavelength laser should allow higher intensity (and higher pressure) without increasing the risk of laser-plasma instabilities. The higher pressure in turn allows higher velocities to be achieved while keeping the low aspect ratios required for hydrodynamic stability. The canonical laser energy has been chosen to be 500 kJ. A target design is presented with various laser pulse shapes and both 1D and 2D simulation results are shown. The sensitivity of these targets to both low-mode and high-mode perturbations is examined. The analysis and simulations in this paper indicate that significant gain (G=57) can be achieved for these targets even in the presence of hydrodynamic instabilities.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375 (United States)
  2. (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
20975073
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Resource Relation:
Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas; Journal Volume: 14; Journal Issue: 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2730503; (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; ASPECT RATIO; DESIGN; GAIN; KRYPTON FLUORIDE LASERS; LASER TARGETS; PLASMA; PLASMA INSTABILITY; PLASMA PRESSURE; PULSE SHAPERS; SIMULATION; TEST FACILITIES; THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS; WAVELENGTHS

Citation Formats

Colombant, D. G., Schmitt, A. J., Obenschain, S. P., Zalesak, S. T., Velikovich, A. L., Bates, J. W., Fyfe, D. E., Gardner, J. H., Manheimer, W., LCP and FD, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375, BRA, Springfield, Virginia, and RSI, Lanham, Maryland 20706. Direct-drive laser target designs for sub-megajoule energies. United States: N. p., 2007. Web. doi:10.1063/1.2730503.
Copy to clipboard
Colombant, D. G., Schmitt, A. J., Obenschain, S. P., Zalesak, S. T., Velikovich, A. L., Bates, J. W., Fyfe, D. E., Gardner, J. H., Manheimer, W., LCP and FD, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375, BRA, Springfield, Virginia, & RSI, Lanham, Maryland 20706. Direct-drive laser target designs for sub-megajoule energies. United States. doi:10.1063/1.2730503.
Copy to clipboard
Colombant, D. G., Schmitt, A. J., Obenschain, S. P., Zalesak, S. T., Velikovich, A. L., Bates, J. W., Fyfe, D. E., Gardner, J. H., Manheimer, W., LCP and FD, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375, BRA, Springfield, Virginia, and RSI, Lanham, Maryland 20706. Tue . "Direct-drive laser target designs for sub-megajoule energies". United States. doi:10.1063/1.2730503.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_20975073,
title = {Direct-drive laser target designs for sub-megajoule energies},
author = {Colombant, D. G. and Schmitt, A. J. and Obenschain, S. P. and Zalesak, S. T. and Velikovich, A. L. and Bates, J. W. and Fyfe, D. E. and Gardner, J. H. and Manheimer, W. and LCP and FD, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375 and BRA, Springfield, Virginia and RSI, Lanham, Maryland 20706},
abstractNote = {New direct-drive laser target designs with KrF laser light take advantage of the shorter wavelength to lower the laser energy required for substantial gain (>30x) to sub-MJ level. These low laser-energy pellets are useful in systems that could form an intermediate step towards fusion energy, such as the proposed Fusion Test Facility [S. P. Obenschain et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 056320 (2006)]. The short wavelength laser should allow higher intensity (and higher pressure) without increasing the risk of laser-plasma instabilities. The higher pressure in turn allows higher velocities to be achieved while keeping the low aspect ratios required for hydrodynamic stability. The canonical laser energy has been chosen to be 500 kJ. A target design is presented with various laser pulse shapes and both 1D and 2D simulation results are shown. The sensitivity of these targets to both low-mode and high-mode perturbations is examined. The analysis and simulations in this paper indicate that significant gain (G=57) can be achieved for these targets even in the presence of hydrodynamic instabilities.},
doi = {10.1063/1.2730503},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 5,
volume = 14,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007},
month = {Tue May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
DOI:  10.1063/1.2730503
Other availability
Find in Google Scholar Find in Google Scholar
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

  • ; ; ; ... - Physics of Plasmas
    The illumination uniformity provided during the initial imprinting phase of the laser foot pulse in a direct drive scenario at the Laser MegaJoule facility has been analyzed. This study analyzes the quality of the illumination of a spherical capsule and concerns the uniformity of the first shock generate in the absorber of an Inertial Confinement Fusion capsule. Four configurations making use of all or some of the 80 laser beams organized in the 20 quads of the cones at 49° and 131° with respect to the polar axis have been considered in order to assemble the foot pulse. Elliptical andmore » circular super-gaussian laser intensity profiles taking into account beam-to-beam power imbalance (10%), pointing error (50 μm), and target positioning (20 μm) have been considered. It has been found that the use of the Polar Direct Drive technique can in some cases reduce the irradiation non-uniformity by a factor as high as 50%. In all cases, elliptical profile provides better results in comparison with the circular one and it is shown that the minimum of the non-uniformity is also a function of the capsule radius.« less

  • ; ; ; ... - Physics of Plasmas
    The symmetry of a Direct-Drive (DD) irradiation scheme has been analyzed by means of three-dimensional (3D) simulations carried out by the code MULTI (R. Ramis et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 49, 475 (1988)) that includes hydrodynamics, heat transport, and 3D laser ray-tracing. The implosion phase of a target irradiated by the Laser Megajoule (LMJ) facility in the context of the Shock Ignition scheme has been considered. The LMJ facility has been designed for Indirect-Drive, and by this reason that the irradiation scheme must be modified when used for DD. Thus, to improve the implosion uniformity to acceptable levels, the beammore » centerlines should be realigned and the beam power balance should be adjusted. Several alternatives with different levels of complexity are presented and discussed.« less

  • ; ; ; ... - Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics
    Central ignition of a thin two-layer-shell fusion target that is directly driven by a 2-MJ profiled pulse of Nd laser second-harmonic radiation has been studied. The parameters of the target were selected so as to provide effective acceleration of the shell toward the center, which was sufficient for the onset of ignition under conditions of increased hydrodynamic stability of the ablator acceleration and compression. The aspect ratio of the inner deuterium-tritium layer of the shell does not exceed 15, provided that a major part (above 75%) of the outer layer (plastic ablator) is evaporated by the instant of maximum compression.more » The investigation is based on two series of numerical calculations that were performed using one-dimensional (1D) hydrodynamic codes. The first 1D code was used to calculate the absorption of the profiled laser-radiation pulse (including calculation of the total absorption coefficient with allowance for the inverse bremsstrahlung and resonance mechanisms) and the spatial distribution of target heating for a real geometry of irradiation using 192 laser beams in a scheme of focusing with a cubo-octahedral symmetry. The second 1D code was used for simulating the total cycle of target evolution under the action of absorbed laser radiation and for determining the thermonuclear gain that was achieved with a given target.« less

  • ; ; ; ... - Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics
    Direct-drive fusion targets are considered at present as an alternative to targets of indirect compression at a laser energy level of about 2 MJ. In this approach, the symmetry of compression and ignition of thermonuclear fuel play the major role. We report on the results of theoretical investigation of compression and burning of spherical direct-drive targets in the conditions of spatial nonuniformity of heating associated with a shift of the target from the beam center of focusing and possible laser radiation energy disbalance in the beams. The investigation involves numerous calculations based on a complex of 1D and 2D codesmore » RAPID, SEND (for determining the target illumination and the dynamics of absorption), DIANA, and NUT (1D and multidimensional hydrodynamics of compression and burning of targets). The target under investigation had the form of a two-layer shell (ablator made of inertial material CH and DT ice) filled with DT gas. We have determined the range of admissible variation of compression and combustion parameters of the target depending on the variation of the spatial nonuniformity of its heating by a multibeam laser system. It has been shown that low-mode (long-wavelength) perturbations deteriorate the characteristics of the central region due to less effective conversion of the kinetic energy of the target shell into the internal energy of the center. Local initiation of burning is also observed in off-center regions of the target in the case of substantial asymmetry of irradiation. In this case, burning is not spread over the entire volume of the DT fuel as a rule, which considerably reduces the thermonuclear yield as compared to that in the case of spherical symmetry and central ignition.« less

  • ; ; ; ... - Physics of Plasmas
    (B204)Hydrodynamic instabilities seeded by laser imprint and surface roughness limit the compression ratio and neutron yield in the direct-drive inertial confinement fusion target designs. New improved-performance designs use adiabat shaping to increase the entropy of only the outer portion of the shell, reducing the instability growth. The inner portion of the shell is kept on a lower entropy to maximize shell compressibility. The adiabat shaping is implemented using a high-intensity picket in front of the main-drive pulse. The picket launches a strong shock that decays as it propagates through the shell. This increases the ablation velocity and reduces the Rayleigh-Taylormore » growth rates. In addition, as shown earlier [T.J.B. Collis and S. Skupsky, Phys. Plasmas 9 275 (2002)], the picket reduces the instability seed due to the laser imprint. To test the results of calculations, a series of the picket pulse implosions of CH capsules were performed on the OMEGA laser system [T.R. Boehly, D .L. Brown, R.S. Craxton, et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. The experiments demonstrated a significant improvement in target yields for the pulses with the picket compared to the pulses without the picket. Results of the theory and experiments with adiabat shaping are being extended to future OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility's [J.A. Paisner, J.D. Boyes, S.A. Kumpan, W.H. Lowdermilk, and M.S. Sorem, Laser Focus World 30, 75 (1994)] cryogenic target designs.« less