Shock timing experiments on the National Ignition Facility: Initial results and comparison with simulation

• DOI: 10.1063/1.3694122
• Publication Date: 2012-04-12T22:27:32Z
• Authors: H. F. Robey; T. R. Boehly; P. M. Celliers; J. H. Eggert; D. Hicks; R. F. Smith; R. Collins; M. W. Bowers; K. G. Krauter; P. S. Datte; D. H. Munro; J. L. Milovich; O. S. Jones; P. A. Michel; C. A. Thomas; R. E. Olson; S. Pollaine; R. P. J. Town; S. Haan; D. Callahan; D. Clark; J. Edwards; J. L. Kline; S. Dixit; M. B. Schneider; E. L. Dewald; K. Widmann; J. D. Moody; T. Döppner; H. B. Radousky; A. Throop; D. Kalantar; P. DiNicola; A. Nikroo; J. J. Kroll; A. V. Hamza; J. B. Horner; S. D. Bhandarkar; E. Dzenitis; E. Alger; E. Giraldez; C. Castro; K. Moreno; C. Haynam; K. N. LaFortune; C. Widmayer; M. Shaw; K. Jancaitis; T. Parham; D. M. Holunga; C. F. Walters; B. Haid; E. R. Mapoles; J. Sater; C. R. Gibson; T. Malsbury; J. Fair; D. Trummer; K. R. Coffee; B. Burr; L. V. Berzins; C. Choate; S. J. Brereton; S. Azevedo; H. Chandrasekaran; D. C. Eder; N. D. Masters; A. C. Fisher; P. A. Sterne; B. K. Young; O. L. Landen; B. M. Van Wonterghem; B. J. MacGowan; J. Atherton; J. D. Lindl; D. D. Meyerhofer; E. Moses
• Keywords: National Ignition Facility; Keyhole

Capsule implosions on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [Lindl et al., Phys. Plasmas 11, 339 (2004)] are underway with goal of compressing deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel to a sufficiently high areal density (ρR) sustain self-propagating burn wave required for fusion power gain greater than unity. These driven carefully tailored sequence four shock waves that must be timed very precision in order keep DT low adiabat. Initial experiments measure strength and relative timing these shocks have been conducted NIF specially designed surrogate target platform known as keyhole target. This geometry associated diagnostics described detail. The initial data presented compared numerical simulations. As primary is assess minimize adiabat related implosions, methodology quantifying from velocity measurements. Results contrasted between early exhibited poor subsequent where modified demonstrated significant improvement.