Initial Experiments on the Shock-Ignition Inertial Confinement Fusion Concept

Conference · Fri Mar 28 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2885197· OSTI ID:926172

Theobald, W ^[1]; Betti, R; Stoeckl, C; Anderson, K S; Delettrez, J A; Glebov, V Yu; Goncharov, V N; Marshall, F J; Maywar, D N; McCrory, R L; Meyerhofer, D D; Radha, P B; Sangster, T C; Seka, W; Shvarts, D; Smalyuk, V A; Solodov, A A; Yaakobi, B; Zhou, C D; Frenje, J A ; Li, C K; Seguin, F H; Petrasso, R D; Perkins, L J

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1. Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Shock ignition is a two-step inertial confinement fusion concept where a strong shock wave is launched at the end of the laser pulse to ignite the compressed core of a low-velocity implosion. Initial shock-ignition technique experiments were performed on the OMEGA Laser Facility using 40 um-thick, 0.9-mm-diam, warm surrogate plastic shells filled with deuterium gas. The experiments showed a significant improvement in the performance of low-adiabat, low-velocity implosions compared to conventional “hot-spot” implosions. High areal densities with average values exceeding ~0.2 g/cm^2 and peak areal densities above 0.3 g/cm2 were measured, which is in good agreement with one-dimensional hydrodynamical simulation predictions. Shock-ignition technique implosions with cryogenic deuterium and deuterium–tritium ice shells produced areal densities close to the 1-D prediction and achieved up to 12% of the predicted 1-D fusion yield.

• Research Organization: Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FC52-08NA28302
• OSTI ID: 926172
• Report Number(s): DE/SF/28302-810; 2007-123; 1779
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Volume: 15
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English