Abstract
Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) creates extreme states of matter. In current direct-drive cryogenic target implosions on the 60-beam OMEGA laser system, the compressed target has a measured pressure of 5 Gbar. These targets are hydrodynamically scaled from ignition targets for the National Ignition Facility. The ignition targets are predicted to have peak pressures of 3 Tbar after the target ignites. ICF target acceleration and deceleration are realized when hot, low-density plasma pushes against cold, high-density plasma, making the target implosion inherently susceptible to the Rayleigh–Taylor hydrodynamic instability (RTI). The unstable RTI growth causes mixing of cold, high-density shell plasma with the low-density, hot-spot plasma and reduces the primary neutron yield of the implosion. The strategy to control the RTI growth is to reduce the seeds (e.g., laser imprint and target-surface roughness) and the growth rates of the dominant modes. This paper reports on our recent experiments, progress in validating the hydrodynamics codes that are used to design future high-gain cryogenic DT targets, and techniques to improve target performance. A brief description is given of a new high energy petawatt laser – OMEGA EP (extended performance) – that is being added to the OMEGA compression facility.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bell, G.I.: 1951, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, CA, Report LA-1321.
Betti, R. et al.: 1998, Phys. Plasmas 5, 1446.
Betti, R. et al.: 2002, Phys. Plasmas 9, 2277.
Bodner, S.E. et al.: 1998, Phys. Plasmas 5, 1901.
Boehly, T.R. et al.: 1997, Opt. Commun. 133, 495.
Boehly, T.R. et al.: 1999, J. Appl. Phys. 85, 3444.
Campbell, M.D. and Hogan, W.J.: 1999, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, B39; Dimonte G.: 1999, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2009.
Campbell, M.D. and Hogan, W.J.: 1999, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, B39; Dimonte G.: 1999, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2009.
Glendinning, S.G. et al.: 1997, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 3318.
Glendinning, S.G. et al.: 2000, Phys. Plasmas 7, 2033.
Goncharov, V.N. et al.: 2003, Phys. Plasmas 10, 1906.
Herrmann, M.C., Tabak, M. and Lindl, J.D.: 2001, Phys. Plasmas 8, 2296.
Hsing, W.W. et al.: 1997, Phys. Plasmas 4, 1832.
Li, C.K. et al.: 2002, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 165002.
Lindl, J.D.: 1998, Inertial Confinement Fusion: The Quest for Ignition and Energy Gain using Indirect Drive, New York, Springer-Verlag.
Marinak, M.M. et al.: 1996, Phys. Plasmas 3, 2070.
McKenty, P.W. et al.: 2001, Phys. Plasmas 8, 2315.
McKenty, P.W. et al.: “Direct-drive cryogenic target implosion performance on OMEGA,” Phys. Plasmas (to be published).
Meyerhofer, D.D. et al.: 2001, Phys. Plasmas 8, 2251.
Meyerhofer, D.D. et al.: 2003, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 48, 55.
National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on High Energy Density Plasma Physics, Frontiers in High Energy Density Physics: The X-Games of Contemporary Science, 2003, National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
Pawley, C.J. et al.: 1999, Phys. Plasmas 6, 565.
Plesset, M.S.: 1954, J. Appl. Phys. 25, 96.
Radha, P.B. et al.: 2002, Phys. Plasmas 9, 2208.
Regan, S.P. et al.: ‘Performance of 1-THz-bandwidth, 2-D smoothing by spectral dispersion and polarization smoothing of high-power, solid-state laser beams’, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B (submitted).
Regan, S.P. et al.: 2002a, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 085003.
Regan, S.P. et al.: 2002b, Phys. Plasmas 9, 1357.
Sangster, T.C. et al.: 2003, Phys. Plasmas 10, 1937.
Stoeckl, C. et al.: 2002, Phys. Plasmas 9, 2195.
Séguin, F.H. et al.: 2003, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 975.
Skupsky, S. et al.: 1989, J. Appl. Phys. 66, 3456.
Skupsky, S. and Craxton R.S.: 1999, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2157.
Smalyuk, V.A. et al.: ‘Hot-core characterization of the cryogenic D2 target at peak neutron production in direct-drive spherical implosion’, Phys. Rev. Lett. (submitted).
Smalyuk, V.A. et al.: 1998, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5342.
Smalyuk, V.A. et al.: 2001, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 155002.
Tabak, M. et al.: 1994, Phys. Plasmas 1, 1626.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Regan, S.P., Sangster, T.C., Meyerhofer, D.D. et al. Direct-Drive Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions on Omega. Astrophys Space Sci 298, 227–233 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-005-3939-8
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-005-3939-8