skip to main content

DOE PAGESDOE PAGES

  • DOE PAGES
  • Accepted Manuscript: Implosion shape control of high-velocity, large case-to-capsule ratio beryllium ablators at the National Ignition Facility

This content will become publicly available on July 1, 2019

Title: Implosion shape control of high-velocity, large case-to-capsule ratio beryllium ablators at the National Ignition Facility

Experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) show that the implosion shape of inertial confinement fusion ablators is a key factor limiting performance. To achieve more predictable, shape tunable implosions, we have designed and fielded a large 4.2 case-to-capsule ratio target at the NIF using 6.72 mm diameter Au hohlraums and 1.6 mm diameter Cu-doped Be capsules. Simulations show that at these dimensions during a 10 ns 3-shock laser pulse reaching 275 eV hohlraum temperatures, the plasma flow from the hohlraum wall and ablator is not significant enough to impede beam propagation. Experiments measuring the shock symmetry and in-flight shell symmetry closely matched the simulations. Most notably, in two experiments, we demonstrated symmetry control from negative to positive Legendre P2 space by varying the inner to total laser power cone fraction by 5% below and above the predicted symmetric value. In conclusion, some discrepancies found in 1st shock arrival times that could affect agreement in late time implosion symmetry suggest hohlraum and capsule modeling uncertainties do remain, but this target design reduces sensitivities to them.
Authors:
ORCiD logo [1] ; ORCiD logo [1] ; ORCiD logo [1] ; ORCiD logo [1] ; ORCiD logo [1] ;  [2] ; ORCiD logo [2] ;  [2] ; ORCiD logo [1] ; ORCiD logo [3] ;  [2] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [4] ; ORCiD logo [4] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [1] ;  [5] more »;  [5] ;  [5] ;  [5] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [1] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  5. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-29075
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 25; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Research Org:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org:
USDOE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
OSTI Identifier:
1463550
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1461928