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A series of experiments to determine the optimum laser-beam radius by balancing the reduction of cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) with increased illumination nonuniformities shows that the hydrodynamic efficiency is increased by $\ensuremath{\sim}35%$, which leads to a factor of 2.6 increase in the neutron yield when the laser-spot size is reduced by $20%$. Over this range, the absorption is measured to increase by $15%$, resulting in a $17%$ increase in the implosion velocity and a $10%$ earlier bang time. When reducing the ratio of laser-spot size to a target radius below 0.8, the rms amplitudes of the nonuniformities imposed by the smaller laser spots are measured at a convergence ratio of 2.5 to exceed $8\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ and the neutron yield saturates despite increasing absorbed energy, implosion velocity, and decreasing bang time. The results agree well with hydrodynamic simulations that include both nonlocal and CBET models.

We demonstrate a significant reduction of stimulated Brillouin scattering by polarization smoothing in large-scale high-temperature hohlraum plasma conditions where filamentation is measured to be negligible. The stimulated Brillouin scattering experimental threshold (defined as the intensity at which 5% of the incident light is backscattered) is measured to increase by a factor of $1.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2$ when polarization smoothing is applied. An analytical model relevant to inertial confinement fusion plasma conditions shows that the measured reduction in backscatter with polarization smoothing results from the random spatial variation in polarization of the laser beam, not from the reduction in beam contrast.

A high-energy, ultraviolet Thomson scattering probe beam has been implemented on the Omega laser facility at the University of Rochester. The new probe operates at a wavelength of 264 nm, with a maximum energy of 260 J in a pulse length of 1 ns. The probe is focused with an F/6.7 lens to a minimum focal spot of 40 mum within a pointing tolerance of