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Title: Development and modeling of a polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform at the National Ignition Facility

Abstract

High-intensity laser facilities, such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF), allow the experimental investigation of plasmas under extreme, high-energy-density conditions. Motivated by validating models for collisional heat-transfer processes in high-energy-density plasmas, we have developed an exploding pusher platform for use at the NIF in the polar-direct-drive configuration. The baseline design employs a 3 mm-diameter capsule, an 18 μm-thick CH ablator, and Ar-doped D2 gas to achieve several keV electron-ion temperature separations with relatively low convergence ratios. In an initial series of shots at the NIF—N160920–003, -005, and N160921–001—the ratio of the laser intensity at different polar angles was varied to optimize the symmetry of the implosion. In this work, we summarize experimental results from the shot series and present pre- and post-shot analysis. Although the polar-direct-drive configuration is inherently asymmetric, we successfully tuned a post-shot 1D model to a set of key implosion performance metrics. The post-shot model has proven effective for extrapolating capsule performance to higher incident laser drive. Overall, the simplicity of the platform and the efficacy of the post-shot 1D model make the polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform attractive for a variety of applications beyond the originally targeted study of collisional processes in high-energy-density plasmas.

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [3]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [5]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [1];  [2] more »;  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Berkshire (United Kingdom)
  3. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  5. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1566028
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1462156
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-744974
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X; 899581
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344; PECASE
Resource 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)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Ellison, C. Leland, Whitley, Heather D., Brown, Colin R. D., Copeland, Sean R., Garbett, Warren J., Le, Hai P., Schneider, Marilyn B., Walters, Zachary B., Chen, Hui, Castor, John I., Craxton, R. Stephen, Gatu Johnson, Maria, Garcia, Emma M., Graziani, Frank R., Kemp, G. Elijah, Krauland, Christine M., McKenty, Patrick W., Lahmann, Brandon, Pino, Jesse E., Rubery, Michael S., Scott, Howard A., Shepherd, Ronnie, and Sio, Hong. Development and modeling of a polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform at the National Ignition Facility. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5025724.
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Ellison, C. Leland, Whitley, Heather D., Brown, Colin R. D., Copeland, Sean R., Garbett, Warren J., Le, Hai P., Schneider, Marilyn B., Walters, Zachary B., Chen, Hui, Castor, John I., Craxton, R. Stephen, Gatu Johnson, Maria, Garcia, Emma M., Graziani, Frank R., Kemp, G. Elijah, Krauland, Christine M., McKenty, Patrick W., Lahmann, Brandon, Pino, Jesse E., Rubery, Michael S., Scott, Howard A., Shepherd, Ronnie, & Sio, Hong. Development and modeling of a polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform at the National Ignition Facility. United States. doi:10.1063/1.5025724.
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Ellison, C. Leland, Whitley, Heather D., Brown, Colin R. D., Copeland, Sean R., Garbett, Warren J., Le, Hai P., Schneider, Marilyn B., Walters, Zachary B., Chen, Hui, Castor, John I., Craxton, R. Stephen, Gatu Johnson, Maria, Garcia, Emma M., Graziani, Frank R., Kemp, G. Elijah, Krauland, Christine M., McKenty, Patrick W., Lahmann, Brandon, Pino, Jesse E., Rubery, Michael S., Scott, Howard A., Shepherd, Ronnie, and Sio, Hong. Mon . "Development and modeling of a polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform at the National Ignition Facility". United States. doi:10.1063/1.5025724. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1566028.
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@article{osti_1566028,
title = {Development and modeling of a polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform at the National Ignition Facility},
author = {Ellison, C. Leland and Whitley, Heather D. and Brown, Colin R. D. and Copeland, Sean R. and Garbett, Warren J. and Le, Hai P. and Schneider, Marilyn B. and Walters, Zachary B. and Chen, Hui and Castor, John I. and Craxton, R. Stephen and Gatu Johnson, Maria and Garcia, Emma M. and Graziani, Frank R. and Kemp, G. Elijah and Krauland, Christine M. and McKenty, Patrick W. and Lahmann, Brandon and Pino, Jesse E. and Rubery, Michael S. and Scott, Howard A. and Shepherd, Ronnie and Sio, Hong},
abstractNote = {High-intensity laser facilities, such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF), allow the experimental investigation of plasmas under extreme, high-energy-density conditions. Motivated by validating models for collisional heat-transfer processes in high-energy-density plasmas, we have developed an exploding pusher platform for use at the NIF in the polar-direct-drive configuration. The baseline design employs a 3 mm-diameter capsule, an 18 μm-thick CH ablator, and Ar-doped D2 gas to achieve several keV electron-ion temperature separations with relatively low convergence ratios. In an initial series of shots at the NIF—N160920–003, -005, and N160921–001—the ratio of the laser intensity at different polar angles was varied to optimize the symmetry of the implosion. In this work, we summarize experimental results from the shot series and present pre- and post-shot analysis. Although the polar-direct-drive configuration is inherently asymmetric, we successfully tuned a post-shot 1D model to a set of key implosion performance metrics. The post-shot model has proven effective for extrapolating capsule performance to higher incident laser drive. Overall, the simplicity of the platform and the efficacy of the post-shot 1D model make the polar-direct-drive exploding pusher platform attractive for a variety of applications beyond the originally targeted study of collisional processes in high-energy-density plasmas.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5025724},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 7,
volume = 25,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {7}
}
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DOI:  10.1063/1.5025724
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Schematic of the PDXP target, which uses 8 atm of deuterium gas surrounded by an 18 $µ$m-thick GDP shell and supported by a 30 $µ$m borosilicate fill tube.
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