Measurements of the effect of laser beam smoothing on direct-drive inertial-confinement-fusion capsule implosions

Journal Article · Mon May 04 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review Letters; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.2774· OSTI ID:7234371

Bradley, D K; Delettrez, J A; Verdon, C P ^[1]

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1. Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623-1299 (United States)

We present measurements of the effect of various levels of laser beam smoothing on both burnthrough time and the neutron yield in layered, deuterium-filled imploding microballoons. Burnthrough times are found to improve as smoothing is increased. This effect is believed to result from a reduction in the seeding of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability with increasing smoothing. The results are in agreement with simulations that model the development of the RT instability from initial perturbation spectra inconsistent with measured changes in uniformity. The neutron yields are also observed to increase in the presence of smoothing, but are much less sensitive to uniformity changes than the burnthrough rates.

• DOE Contract Number: FC03-85DP40200
• OSTI ID: 7234371
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 68:18; ISSN PRLTA; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700340* -- Plasma Waves
Oscillations
& Instabilities-- (1992-)
700411 -- Inertial Confinement Devices-- (1992-)
AIRSHIPS
BALLOONS
BARYONS
CONFINEMENT
DATA
DEUTERIUM
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
IMPLOSIONS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
INFORMATION
INSTABILITY
ISOTOPES
LASER IMPLOSIONS
LIGHT NUCLEI
NEUTRONS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SIMULATION
STABLE ISOTOPES
YIELDS