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The goal of the Xflows experimental campaign is to study the radiation flow on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) reproducing the sensitivity of the temperature (±8 eV, ±23 μm) and density (±11 mg/cc) measurements of the COAX platform [Johns et al., High Energy Density Phys. 39, 100939 (2021); Fryer et al., High Energy Density Phys. 35, 100738 (2020); and Coffing et al., Phys. Plasmas 29, 083302 (2022)]. This new platform will enable future astrophysical experiments involving supernova shock breakout, such as Radishock (Johns et al., Laboratory for Laser Energetics Annual Report 338, 2020) on OMEGA-60 [Boehly et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66, 508 (1995)], and stochastic media (such as XFOL on OMEGA). Greater energy and larger physical scale on NIF [Moses et al., Eur. Phys. J. D 44, 215 (2007)] will enable a greater travel distance of radiation flow, higher density, and more manufacturable foams and enable exploration of a greater range of radiation behavior than achievable in the prior OMEGA experiments. This publication will describe the baseline configuration for the Xflows experimental campaign and the roadmap to achieve its primary objectives.

In the Double Shell Inertial Confinement Fusion concept, characterizing the shape asymmetry of imploding metal shells is vital for understanding energy-efficient compression and radiative losses of the thermonuclear fuel. The Monte Carlo N-Particle MCNP® code forward models radiography of Double Shell capsule implosions using the Advanced Radiographic Capability at the National Ignition Facility. A procedure is developed for using MCNP to reconstruct density profiles from the radiograph image intensity. For a given Double Shell imploding target geometry, MCNP radiographs predict image contrast, which can help guide experimental design. In future work, the calculated MCNP synthetic radiographs will be compared with experimental radiographs to determine the radial and azimuthal density profiles of the Double Shell capsules.

Predicting and modeling the behavior of experiments with radiation waves propagating through low-density foams require a detailed quantification of the numerous uncertainties present. In regimes where a prominent radiative shock is produced, key dynamical features include the shock position, temperature, and curvature and the spatial distribution and temperature of the corresponding supersonic radiation wave. The COAX experimental platform is designed to constrain numerical models of such a radiative shock propagating through a low-density foam by employing radiography for spatial and shock information, Dante for characterizing the x-ray flux from the indirectly driven target, and a novel spectral diagnostic designed to probe the temperature profile of the wave. In this work, we model COAX with parameterized 2D simulations and a Hohlraum-laser modeling package to study uncertainties in diagnosing the experiment. The inferred temperature profile of the COAX radiation transport experiments has been shown to differ from simulations more than expected from drive uncertainties that have been constrained by simultaneous soft x-ray flux and radiography measurements.

The principal Hugoniot, sound velocity, and Gr\"uneisen parameter of polystyrene were measured at conditions relevant to shocks in inertial confinement fusion implosions, from 100 to 1000 GPa. The sound velocity is in good agreement with quantum molecular dynamics calculations and all tabular equation of state models at pressures below 200 GPa. Above 200 GPa, the experimental results agree with two of the examined tables, but do not agree with the most recent table developed for design of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. The Gr\"uneisen parameter increases with density below $\ensuremath{\sim}3.1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{g}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$ and approaches the asymptotic value for an ideal gas after complete dissociation. This behavior is in good agreement with quantum molecular dynamics results and previous work but is not represented by any of the tabular models. The discrepancy between tabular models and experimental measurement of the sound velocity and Gr\"uneisen parameter is sufficient to impact simulations of ICF experiments.

The goal of the National Direct-Drive Program is to demonstrate and understand the physics of laser direct drive (LDD). Efforts are underway on OMEGA for the 100-Gbar Campaign to demonstrate and un...

MgO is a major constituent of the ${\text{MgO-FeO-SiO}}_{2}$ system that comprises the Earth's mantle and that of super-Earth exoplanets. Knowledge of its high-pressure behavior is important for modeling the more complex compounds. This paper presents measurements of the principal Hugoniot, sound velocity, and temperature of MgO, shocked to pressures of 710 to 2300 GPa using laser-driven compression. The Hugoniot and temperature measurements compare favorably to previous results constraining the shock response of MgO at extreme conditions. The Gr\"uneisen parameter was calculated from the Hugoniot and sound velocity data and was found to be underpredicted by tabular models. The sound velocity of liquid MgO is overpredicted by models implying that the quantity of partial melt required to match decreased wave speeds in ultralow velocity zones in the lower mantle may be less than previously assumed and experiments at lower-mantle pressures are needed.

The equation of state (EOS) of carbon in its high-pressure solid and liquid phases is of interest to planetary astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion. Of particular interest are the high-pressure shock and release responses of diamond as these provide rigorous constraints on important paths through the EOS. This paper presents experimental Hugoniot and release data for both single-crystal diamond (SCD) and nanocrystalline diamond (NCD), which is comprised of nanometer-scale diamond grains and is $\ensuremath{\sim}5%$ less dense than SCD. We find that NCD has a stiffer Hugoniot than SCD that can be attributed to porosity. A Gr\"uneisen parameter of $\ensuremath{\sim}1$ was derived from the data, which suggests increased coordination in the high-pressure fluid carbon compared to ambient diamond.

Current inertial confinement fusion experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G. H. Miller, E. I. Moses, and C. R. Wuest, Opt. Eng. 43, 2841 (2004)] are attempting to demonstrate thermonuclear ignition using x-ray drive by imploding spherical targets containing hydrogen-isotope fuel in the form of a thin cryogenic layer surrounding a central volume of fuel vapor [J. Lindl, Phys. Plasmas 2, 3933 (1995)]. The fuel is contained within a plastic ablator layer with small concentrations of one or more mid-Z elements, e.g., Ge or Cu. The capsule implodes, driven by intense x-ray emission from the inner surface of a hohlraum enclosure irradiated by the NIF laser, and fusion reactions occur in the central hot spot near the time of peak compression. Ignition will occur if the hot spot within the compressed fuel layer attains a high-enough areal density to retain enough of the reaction product energy to reach nuclear reaction temperatures within the inertial hydrodynamic disassembly time of the fuel mass ...

A high-resolving-power x-ray spectrometer has been developed for the OMEGA EP Laser System based on a spherically bent Si [220] crystal with a radius of curvature of 330 mm and a Spectral Instruments (SI) 800 Series charge-coupled device. The instrument measures time-integrated x-ray emission spectra in the 7.97- to 8.11-keV range, centered on the Cu Kα1 line. To demonstrate the performance of the spectrometer under high-power conditions, Kα1,2 emission spectra were measured from Cu foils irradiated by the OMEGA EP laser with 100-J, 1-ps pulses at focused intensities above 1018 W/cm2. The ultimate goal is to couple the spectrometer to a picosecond x-ray streak camera and measure temperature-equilibration dynamics inside rapidly heated materials. The plan for these ultrafast streaked x-ray spectroscopy studies is discussed.

A new technique that uses inertial confinement implosions for measuring low-energy nuclear reactions important to nuclear astrophysics is described. Simultaneous measurements of n–D and n–T elastic scattering at 14.1 MeV using deuterium–tritium gas-filled capsules provide a proof of principle for this technique. Measurements have been made of D(d,p)T (dd) and T(t,2n)4He (tt) reaction yields relative to the D(t,n)4He (dt) reaction yield for deuterium–tritium mixtures with f T /f D between 0.62 and 0.75 and for a wide range of ion temperatures to test our understanding of the implosion processes. Measurements of the shape of the neutron spectrum from the T(t,2n)4He reaction have been made for each of these target configurations.

The Fermi-degenerate plasma conditions created in liquid deuterium by a laser-ablation—driven shock wave were probed with noncollective, spectrally resolved, inelastic x-ray Thomson scattering employing Cl Lyα line emission at 2.96 keV. Thus, these first x-ray Thomson scattering measurements of the microscopic properties of shocked deuterium show an inferred spatially averaged electron temperature of 8±5 eV, an electron density of 2.2(±0.5)×1023 cm-3, and an ionization of 0.8 (-0.25, +0.15). Our two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations using equation-of-state models suited for the extreme parameters occurring in inertial confinement fusion research and planetary interiors are consistent with the experimental results.

The electron temperature (Te) and average ionization (Z) of nearly Fermi-degenerate, direct-drive, shock-heated, and compressed plastic planar foils were investigated using noncollective spectrally resolved x-ray scattering on the OMEGA Laser System [T. R. Boehly, Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. Plastic (CH) and Br-doped CH foils were driven with six beams, having an overlapped intensity of ∼1× 1014 W cm2 and generating ∼15 Mbar pressure in the foil. The plasma conditions of the foil predicted with a one-dimensional (1-D) hydrodynamics code are Te ∼10 eV, Z∼1, mass density ρ ∼4 g cm3, and electron density ne ∼3× 1023 cm-3. The uniformly compressed portion of the target was probed with 9.0-keV x rays from a Zn Heα backlighter created with 18 additional tightly focused beams. The x rays scattered at either 90° or 120° were dispersed with a Bragg crystal spectrometer and recorded with an x-ray framing camera. An examination of the scattered x-ray spectra reveals that an upper limit of Z∼2 and Te =20 eV are inferred from the spectral line shapes of the elastic Rayleigh and inelastic Compton components. Low average ionizations (i.e., Z

Pulsed-power generators can efficiently deliver tens of megajoules of energy to a load. However, technological constrains clamp the delivery time to 100 ns. At the other end of the spectrum, petawatt lasers are limited to energy below a kilojoule. Yet they can deliver it on picosecond time scales. Combining both systems would greatly increase their versatility. For instance, one could imagine developing a high energy x-ray source (E>50 keV) where a pulsed-power generator would pre-ionize a high-Z gas to electron densities above 1020 cm−3. Then, a high-power laser would push the ionization in the He-like regime only in a small channel surrounding the initial laser path. The bulk ionization, requiring copious amounts of energy, would be done by the pulsed-power machine. The rest of the ionization, requiring large electric fields, would be done locally by the laser.

Shock waves generated by temporally shaped laser ablation compressed and heated Al to ρ = 11 ± 5 g/cm3 and 20 ± 2 eV. The inferred density and temperature demonstrate that highly compressed, Fermi-degenerate plasma can be created by tuning the temporal pulse shape of the laser drive intensity. The density and temperature of these plastic-tamped Al plasmas in the warm dense matter regime were diagnosed using the Stark-broadened, Al 1s–2p absorption spectral line shapes. These observations represent the forefront of opacity measurements for warm dense matter and are important for high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion.

Neutron imaging is used in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments to measure the core symmetry of imploded targets. Liquid bubble chambers have the potential to obtain higher resolution images of the targets for a shorter source–target distance than typical scintillator arrays. Due to the fact that nucleation models used in gel detectors research cannot always give correct estimates for the neutron-induced bubble density inside a liquid bubble chamber, an improved theoretical model to describe the mechanism of bubble formation for Freon 115 as the active medium has been developed. It shows that the size of the critical radius for the nucleation process determines the mechanism of bubble formation and the sensitivity of the active medium to the 14.1-MeV incident neutrons resulting from ICF implosions. The bubble-growth mechanism is driven by the excitation of the medium electronic levels and not by electrons ejected from the medium's atoms as happens for the bubble chambers used to detect charged particles. The model accurately predicts the neutron-induced bubble density measured on OMEGA with both liquid bubble chambers and gel detectors.

The OMEGA laser system is being used to investigate several approaches to inertial confinement fusion: the traditional central-hot-spot (CHS) ignition, fast ignition (FI), and shock ignition (SI). To achieve ignition, CHS requires the highly uniform compression of a solid deuterium-tritium (DT)-layered target on a low adiabat (defined as the ratio of the pressure to the Fermi-degenerate pressure) and with an implosion velocity Vimp ≥ 3.5 × 107 cm/s. A laser pulse shape with triple pickets is used to produce this low adiabat by optimally timing multiple shocks launched by the pickets and the main laser. Cryogenic targets that imploded optimally with such pulses have demonstrated near-design compression with an areal density ρR ~ 290 mg/cm2 at Vimp = 3.1 × 107 cm/s. These are, by far, the highest DT areal densities demonstrated in the laboratory. SI experiments, where a shock is launched by a picket at the end of the laser pulse into the compressing capsule, have been performed on low-adiabat warm plastic targets. Both yield and areal density improve significantly when a spike is used at the end of the laser pulse, indicating that the energy from the shock is coupled into the compressing target. Integrated FI experiments have begun on the OMEGA/OMEGA EP laser system.

Ignition Set to Go One aim of the National Ignition Facility is to implode a capsule containing a deuterium-tritium fuel mix and initiate a fusion reaction. With 192 intense laser beams focused into a centimeter-scale cavity, a major challenge has been to create a symmetric implosion and the necessary temperatures within the cavity for ignition to be realized (see the Perspective by Norreys ). Glenzer et al. (p. 1228 , published online 28 January) now show that these conditions can be met, paving the way for the next step of igniting a fuel-filled capsule. Furthermore, Li et al. (p. 1231 , published online 28 January) show how charged particles can be used to characterize and measure the conditions within the imploding capsule. The high energies and temperature realized can also be used to model astrophysical and other extreme energy processes in a laboratory settings.

We have measured time-integrated and time-gated electron temperature ( T e ) and density ( N e ) spatial profiles from indirect-drive implosions. In our experiments, we used a multiple-pinhole two-dimensional imaging spectrometer to obtain multispectral X-ray images of the imploded core. Quantitative comparisons between quasi-monochromatic images in different energy bands allowed T e and N e spatial profiles to be determined using two independent and validated techniques: a multi-objective search and reconstruction analysis, and an analytical analysis. We then compared the results to a simple one-dimensional (1D) mix-free hydrodynamics simulation in order to evaluate the ability of such a model to predict our experiments. Our data show spatial T e profiles that are qualitatively consistent with the predictions of our 1D simulations, but we observe central cores that are 10–25% cooler and emit X-rays as late as 200 ps after peak compression. We infer time-gated spatial N e profiles that are consistent with our 1D simulations near the times of peak compression, but we find significant disagreement between time-integrated data and 1D simulation predictions at large radii. Careful analysis of the time-gated and time-integrated T e and N e spatial profiles, together with streaked X-ray emission spectra from core and shell dopants, suggests mixing of shell material into the core is an important process that our 1D hydrodynamics simulations fail to capture, and comparison between image data and a simple analytical model suggests that ∼2–5 μm of the initial inner shell thickness mixes into the core during the time period of significant X-ray emission. This mix width is consistent with the predictions of a growth-factor analysis that treats instability growth seeded by capsule surface roughness, and points to the need to consider time-dependent mixing effects when interpreting T e and N e spatial profiles derived from multispectral X-ray image data, particularly at large radii where mixing effects will be most significant.

The inertial confinement fusion (ICF) programme, the high-average-power lasers (HAPL) programme, and the heavy ion fusion (HIF) programme are making long-term investments to establish the scientific and technical basis for an economically and environmentally attractive fusion power source. In the near term, the National Ignition Campaign is expected to establish the scientific and technical basis for ignition and gain on the National Ignition Facility. The results of these experiments and the implications for target design will be incorporated into the long-term efforts to develop a viable power-plant concept including target production, chamber dynamics and driver.

Knowing the properties of warm dense matter is crucial to understanding the formation and evolution of giant planets, including gaseous giants or mega-Earths. Generating warm dense matter in the laboratory has been limited to samples on the micron scale. Probing such small volumes raise major challenges in measuring the properties of warm dense matter using standard diagnostics. This work proposes a new method to produce warm dense matter samples on the centimeter scale using pulsed-power generators with current rise-times on the order of 100 ns. We numerically demonstrate that the early expansion phase of the sample, usually encountered in pulsed-power driven implosions, can be virtually eliminated by using a fast current switching scheme. To avoid mixing the plasma and warm dense matter states, the present strategy uses a low-Z gas puff z-pinch as a closing plasma switch. A cylindrical metallic sample is connected between the anode and the cathode of a pulsed-power generator. Using a fast valve, gas is injected cylindrically around the sample. The gas is pre-ionized just before the main current discharge. Since the sample is initially cold and its diameter is much smaller than the gas column, most of the current flows inside the gas during the first part of the discharge. During this phase, the gas is compressed as a z-pinch and converges radially until it reaches the sample. At this time, all the current carried by the gas z-pinch switches to the sample in 10 ns, rapidly heating and compressing it. The sample gets into a warm dense matter state while the strong azimuthal field generated by the z-pinch prevents the expansion of the sample. Numerical simulations show that this method can produce centimeter-size warm dense matter samples using a 10 MA linear transformer driver.

We report new experimental results obtained on three different laser facilities that show directed laser-driven relativistic electron-positron jets with up to 30 times larger yields than previously obtained and a quadratic (~ E^2) dependence of the positron yield on the laser energy. This favorable scaling stems from a combination of higher energy electrons due to increased laser intensity and the recirculation of MeV electrons in the mm-thick target. Based on this scaling, first principles simulations predict the possibility of using such electron-positron jets, produced at upcoming high-energy laser facilities, to probe the physics of relativistic collisionless shocks in the laboratory., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Accepted to be published on Physical Review Letters on April 23, 2015

Self-emission x-ray shadowgraphy provides a method to measure the ablation-front trajectory and low-mode nonuniformity of a target imploded by directly illuminating a fusion capsule with laser beams. The technique uses time-resolved images of soft x-rays ( ${>}1$ keV) emitted from the coronal plasma of the target imaged onto an x-ray framing camera to determine the position of the ablation front. Methods used to accurately measure the ablation-front radius ( ${\it\delta}R=\pm 1.15~{\rm\mu}\text{m}$ ), image-to-image timing ( ${\it\delta}({\rm\Delta}t)=\pm 2.5$ ps) and absolute timing ( ${\it\delta}t=\pm 10$ ps) are presented. Angular averaging of the images provides an average radius measurement of ${\it\delta}(R_{\text{av}})=\pm 0.15~{\rm\mu}\text{m}$ and an error in velocity of ${\it\delta}V/V=\pm 3\%$ . This technique was applied on the Omega Laser Facility [Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] and the National Ignition Facility [Campbell and Hogan, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, B39 (1999)].

A double-pulse laser drive is used to create episodic supersonic plasma jets that propagate into a low density ambient medium. These are among the first laser experiments to generate pulsed outflow. The temporal laser-intensity profile consists of two 1-ns square pulses separated by 9.6 ns. The laser is focused on a truncated conical plug made of medium Z material inserted into a high-Z washer. Unloading material from the plug is collimated within the cylindrical washer hole, then propagates into the low-Z foam medium. The resulting jet is denser than the ambient medium. Double-pulse jet evolution is compared to that driven by a single laser pulse. The total drive energy is the same for both jets, as if a source with fixed energy generated a jet from either one or two bursts. Radiographs taken at 100 ns show that a single-pulse jet was broader than the double-pulse jet, as predicted by hydrodynamic simulations. Since the initial shock creating the jet is stronger when all the energy arrives in a single pulse, the jet material impacts the ambient medium with higher initial velocity. Detailed comparisons between single- and double-pulsed jet rheology and shock structure are presented. 2-D hydrodynamic simulations are compared to the experimental radiographs.

Recent advances in hydrodynamics theory and experiments at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics are described. Particular emphasis is laid on improvements in the implosion stability achieved by shaping the ablator adiabat and on the newly developed designs for fast ignition fuel assembly. The results of two-dimensional simulations and a recent set of implosion experiments on OMEGA are presented to verify the role of adiabat shaping on the hydrodynamic stability of direct-drive implosions. Adiabat shaping laser pulses are also used to implode massive capsules on a low adiabat and low implosion velocity in order to assemble high density plasmas for fast ignition. The areal densities measured in implosion experiments of such targets on OMEGA are among the highest ever recorded in a laser-driven compression experiment. Slow low-adiabat implosions of massive wetted-foam DT capsules are used in the simulations to generate the fuel assemblies for different driver energies. Such dense cores are then ignited by a fast electron beam and the resulting thermonuclear yield is used to compute the target gain. It is shown that a 200 kJ UV laser can assemble fuel yielding about 18 MJ of energy when ignited by 15 kJ of 1-2 MeV electrons.

OMEGA EP (Extended Performance) is a petawatt-class addition to the existing 30-kJ, 60-beam OMEGA Laser Facility at the University of Rochester. When completed, it will consist of four beamlines, each capable of producing up to 6.5 kJ at 351 nm in a 1 to 10 ns pulse. Two of the beamlines will produce up to 2.6 kJ in a pulse-width range of 1 to 100 ps at 1053 nm using chirped-pulse amplification (CPA). This paper reviews both the OMEGA EP performance objectives and the enabling technologies required to meet these goals.

Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is expected to demonstrate high gain on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the next decade and is a leading candidate for inertial fusion energy production. The demonstration of high areal densities in hydrodynamically scaled cryogenic DT or D2 implosions with neutron yields that are a significant fraction of the “clean” 1-D predictions will validate the ignition-equivalent direct-drive target performance on the OMEGA laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). This paper highlights the recent experimental and theoretical progress leading toward achieving this validation in the next few years. The NIF will initially be configured for X-ray drive and with no beams placed at the target equator to provide a symmetric irradiation of a direct-drive capsule. LLE is developing the “polar-direct-drive” (PDD) approach that repoints beams toward the target equator. Initial 2-D simulations have shown ignition. A unique “Saturn-like” plastic ring around the equator refracts the laser light incident near the equator toward the target, improving the drive uniformity. LLE is currently constructing the multibeam, 2.6-kJ/beam, petawatt laser system OMEGA EP. Integrated fast-ignition experiments, combining the OMEGA EP and OMEGA Laser Systems, will begin in FY08.

A high-energy petawatt laser, OMEGA EP, is currently under construction at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Integrated into the existing OMEGA laser, it will support three major areas of research: (a) backlighting of high-energy-density plasmas, (b) integrated fast ignition experiments, and (c) high-intensity physics. The laser will provide two beams combined collinearly and coaxially with short pulses (~1 to 100 ps) and high energy (2.6 kJ at 10 ps). Cone-in-shell fuel-assembly experiments and simulations of short-pulse heated cryogenic targets are being performed in preparation for cryogenic integrated fast ignitor experiments on OMEGA EP.

Measurements of the conduction-zone length (110 ± 20 μm at t = 2.8 ns), the averaged mass ablation rate of the deuterated plastic (7.95 ± 0.3 μg/ns), shell trajectory, and laser absorption are made in direct-drive cryogenic implosions and are used to quantify the electron thermal transport through the conduction zone. Hydrodynamic simulations that use nonlocal thermal transport and cross-beam energy transfer models reproduce these experimental observables. Hydrodynamic simulations that use a time-dependent flux-limited model reproduce the measured shell trajectory and the laser absorption but underestimate the mass ablation rate by ~10% and the length of the conduction zone by nearly a factor of 2.

Experiments reporting magnetic-field generation by the ablative nonlinear Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability are reviewed. The experiments show how large-scale magnetic fields can, under certain circumstances, emerge and persist in strongly driven laboratory and astrophysical flows at drive pressures exceeding one million times atmospheric pressure.

The OMEGA cryogenic target handling system provides deuterium-filled cryogenic targets for direct-drive implosion experiments. The targets are 0.9 mm in diameter with a 3-{mu}m-thick outer plastic ablator and an inner ice layer that ranges from 80 to 100 {mu}m thick. The smoothest ice layer possessed an average root-mean-square (rms) roughness of 1.2 {mu}m, although values ranging from 2 to 4 {mu}m are more typical. Implosion experiments achieved a maximum yield of 2.11 x 10{sup 11} primary neutrons (70% of the clean one-dimensional yield) with an average areal density of 50 mg/cm{sup 2} with a 1-ns square, high-adiabat ({alpha} = 25) laser pulse. Lower yields (1 x 10{sup 10} primary neutrons) and higher areal densities (88 mg/cm{sup 2}) were obtained using a lower-adiabat ({alpha} = 4) laser pulse. Better performance is expected once smoother ice layers (better than 2-{mu}m average rms roughness) are positioned within 10 {mu}m of where the laser beams are pointed. Currently, the offset between the target's location and where the laser beams are pointing at the moment of implosion is 14 to 60 {mu}m.

Proton emission imaging cameras, in combination with proton spectrometers and a proton temporal diagnostic, provide a great deal of information about the spatial structure and time evolution of inertial-confinement fusion capsule implosions. When used with D3He-filled capsules, multiple proton emission imaging cameras measure the spatial distribution of fusion burn, with three-dimensional information about burn symmetry. Simultaneously, multiple spectrometers measure areal density as a function of angle around the imploded capsule. Experiments at the OMEGA laser facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] have already proven the utility of this approach. An introduction to the hardware used for penumbral imaging, and algorithms used to create images of the burn region, are provided here along with simple scaling laws relating image resolution and signal-to-noise ratio to characteristics of the cameras and the burn region.

The compressibility of fluid deuterium up to several Mbar has been probed using laser-driven shock waves reflected from a quartz anvil. Combining high-precision (∼1%) shock velocity measurements with the double-shock technique, where differences in equation of state (EOS) models are magnified, has allowed better discrimination between theoretical predictions in the second-shock regime. Double-shock results are in agreement with the stiffer EOS models—which exhibit roughly fourfold single-shock compression—for initial shocks up to 1 Mbar and above 2 Mbar, but diverge from these predictions in between. Softer EOS models—which exhibit sixfold single-shock compression at 1 Mbar—overestimate the reshock pressure for the entire range under study.

Solid-state dynamics experiments at very high pressures and strain rates are becoming possible with high-power laser facilities, albeit over brief intervals of time and spatially small scales. To achieve extreme pressures in the solid state requires that the sample be kept cool, with T-sample < T-melt. To this end, a shockless, plasma-piston "drive" has been developed on the Omega laser, and a staged shock drive was demonstrated on the Nova laser. To characterize the drive, velocity interferometer measurements allow the high pressures of 10 to 200 GPa (0.1 to 2 Mbar) and strain rates of 10(6) to 10(8) s(-1) to be determined. Solid-state strength in the sample is inferred at these high pressures using the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability as a "diagnostic." Lattice response and phase can be inferred for single-crystal samples from time-resolved X-ray diffraction. Temperature and compression in polycrystalline samples can be deduced from extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) measurements. Deformation mechanisms and residual melt depth can be identified by examining recovered samples. We will briefly review this new area of laser-based materials-dynamics research, then present a path forward for carrying these solid-state experiments to much higher pressures, P > 10(3) GPa (10 Mbar), on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

A laser-source-based extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurement has been used to study the properties of laser-shocked metals on a nanosecond time scale. The ability of measuring shock-induced temperatures of the order of 0.1 eV is essentially unique to EXAFS. EXAFS measurement of vanadium shocked to ∼0.5 Mbar with a 3 ns laser pulse yields a compression and temperature in good agreement with hydrodynamic simulations and with shock-speed measurements. In laser-shocked titanium at the same pressure, the EXAFS modulation damping is much higher than warranted by the increase in temperature. This is explained by the α-Ti to ω-Ti phase transformation known to occur around ∼0.1 Mbar in the longer (μs) shocks obtained in gas-gun experiments. In the ω-Ti phase, the disparate neighbor distances cause a beating of the modulation frequencies and thus an increased damping. These results demonstrate that EXAFS measurements can be used for the study of nanosecond-scale shocks and phase transformation ...

New experimental results describing the dynamics of D3He capsule implosions, performed at the 60 beam direct-drive OMEGA laser system [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)], are presented. The capsules, nominally 940 μm in diameter and with 20–27 μm thick CH shells, were filled with 18 atm D3He gas and irradiated with 23 kJ of UV light. Simultaneous measurements of D3He burn history, DD burn history, and several time-integrated D3He proton energy spectra provided new results, such as shock-bang timing, shock-burn duration, evolution of the ion temperature, and evolution of ρR and ρR asymmetries. The shock-bang time measurements, when compared to calculation using the 1D LILAC code [J. Delettrez et al., Phys. Rev. A 36, 3926 (1987)], indicate that a varying flux limiter is required to explain the data, while the measured shock-burn duration is significantly shorter than 1D calculations, irrespective of flux limiter. The time evolution of ion temperature [Ti(t)] has been inferred from the ratio...

A high-resolution x-ray microscope with a large grazing angle has been developed, characterized, and fielded at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. It increases the sensitivity and spatial resolution in planar direct-drive hydrodynamic stability experiments, relevant to inertial confinement fusion research. It has been designed to work as the optical front end of the PJX—a high-current, high-dynamic-range x-ray streak camera. Optical design optimization, results from numerical ray tracing, mirror-coating choice, and characterization have been described previously [O. V. Gotchev, et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 2178 (2003)]. This work highlights the optics’ unique mechanical design and flexibility and considers certain applications that benefit from it. Characterization of the microscope’s resolution in terms of its modulation transfer function over the field of view is shown. Recent results from hydrodynamic stability experiments, diagnosed with the optic and the PJX, are provided to confirm the microscope’s advantages as a high-resolution, high-throughput x-ray optical front end for streaked imaging.

Hydrodynamicinstabilities seeded by laser imprint and surface roughness limit the compression ratio and neutron yield in the direct-drive inertial confinement fusion target designs. New improved-performance designs use adiabat shaping to increase the entropy of only the outer portion of the shell, reducing the instability growth. The inner portion of the shell is kept on a lower entropy to maximize shell compressibility. The adiabat shaping is implemented using a high-intensity picket in front of the main-drive pulse. The picket launches a strong shock that decays as it propagates through the shell. This increases the ablation velocity and reduces the Rayleigh–Taylor growth rates. In addition, as shown earlier [T.J.B. Collins and S. Skupsky, Phys. Plasmas 9, 275 (2002)], the picket reduces the instability seed due to the laser imprint. To test the results of calculations, a series of the picket pulse implosions of CH capsules were performed on the OMEGA laser system [T.R. Boehly, D.L. Brown, R.S. Craxton et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. The experiments demonstrated a significant improvement in target yields for the pulses with the picket compared to the pulses without the picket. Results of the theory and experiments with adiabat shaping are being extended to future OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility’s [J.A. Paisner, J.D. Boyes, S.A. Kumpan, W.H. Lowdermilk, and M.S. Sorem, Laser Focus World 30, 75 (1994)] cryogenic target designs.

A Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) x-ray microscope with a streak camera at the image plane is being developed for OMEGA to increase the sensitivity and spatial resolution in planar direct-drive hydrodynamic stability experiments. A four-mirror, iridium-coated, KB optic has been designed to couple to the high-current PJX streak tube. This design, using a bilayer Ir/Cr coating and a relatively high grazing angle of 2.1°, provides up to three-orders-of-magnitude-higher throughput than a pinhole array coupled to an x-ray framing camera. The angle of reflection has been calculated to maximize the solid angle and the coating reflectivity. The spectral window, peaked at 1.56 keV with a FWHM of about 400 eV, eliminates the contrast impairment caused by the high-energy x-ray emission of the backlighter. Calculations show that the device is capable of registering 2-μm spatial features over a field of view of 120 μm. A series of sputtering and e-beam evaporation deposition tests have been performed on superpolished (

The structure of shell modulations is measured at peak compression of directly driven spherical implosions using absorption of titanium-doped layers placed at various distances of 1, 5, 7, and 9 μm from the inner surface of 20 μm thick plastic CH shells filled with 18 atm of D3He gas. The modulations are measured using the ratios of monochromatic core images taken inside and outside of the titanium 1s–2p absorption spectral region. Peak-compression, time-integrated areal-density modulations are higher at the inner shell surface, which is unstable during the deceleration phase of an implosion with a modulation level of 59±14%. The perturbations are lower in the central part of the shell, having a modulation level of 18±5%. The outer surface of the shell, which is unstable during the acceleration phase of an implosion, has a modulation level of 52±20%.

The yield of tertiary neutrons with energies greater than 20 MeV has been proposed to determine the high ρR of inertial confinement fusion targets. The activation of carbon is a valuable measurement technique because of its high reaction threshold, the availability of high-purity samples, and relatively low cost. The 12C(n,2n)11C reaction has a Q value of 18.7 MeV, well above the 14.1 MeV primary DT neutron energy. The isotope 11C decays with a half-life of 20.3 min and emits a positron, resulting in the production of two back-to-back, 511 keV gamma rays upon annihilation. The positron decay of 11C is nearly identical to the copper decay used in the activation measurements of 14.1 MeV primary DT yields; therefore, the present copper activation gamma-detection system can be used to detect the tertiary-produced carbon activation. Because the tertiary neutron yield is more than six orders of magnitude lower than primary neutron yield, the carbon activation diagnostic requires ultrapure carbon samples, free f...

High-resolution spectrometry of charged particles from inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) experiments has become an important method of studying plasma conditions in laser-compressed capsules. In experiments at the 60-beam OMEGA laser facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)], utilizing capsules with D2, D3He, DT, or DTH fuel in a shell of plastic, glass, or D2 ice, we now routinely make spectral measurements of primary fusion products (p, D, T, 3He, α), secondary fusion products (p), “knock-on” particles (p, D, T) elastically scattered by primary neutrons, and ions from the shell. Use is made of several types of spectrometers that rely on detection and identification of particles with CR-39 nuclear track detectors in conjunction with magnets and/or special ranging filters. CR-39 is especially useful because of its insensitivity to electromagnetic noise and its ability to distinguish the types and energies of individual particles, as illustrated here by detailed calibrations of its response to 0.1–13.8 MeV protons from a Van de Graaff accelerator and to p, D, T, and α from ICF experiments at OMEGA. A description of the spectrometers is accompanied by illustrations of their operating principles using data from OMEGA. Sample results and discussions illustrate the relationship of secondary-proton and knock-on spectra to capsule fuel and shell areal densities and radial compression ratios; the relationship of different primary fusion products to each other and to ion temperatures; the relationship of deviations from spherical symmetry in particle yields and energies to capsule structure; the acceleration of fusion products and the spectra of ions from the shell due to external fields; and other important physical characteristics of the laser-compressed capsules.

Implosions of capsules filled with small quantities of deuterium–tritium (DT) were studied using up to seven proton spectrometers on the OMEGA laser system [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. Simultaneous measurements of elastically scattered protons, i.e., “knock-on” protons generated from DT neutrons were obtained in several directions. The capsules, nominally 945 μm in diameter and with CD shells of ∼20 μm thickness, were filled to about 15 atm and irradiated with 23 kJ of UV light. The high-energy protons from these implosions were used to infer fuel areal density (6.8±0.5 mg/cm2), an average shell areal density (71±3 mg/cm2), and shell asymmetries of up to about 25 mg/cm2. In addition to presenting new results, these measurements verify and significantly improve upon the accuracy of the fuel areal density results obtained utilizing knock-on deuterons from hydrodynamically equivalent, pure DT implosions [C. K. Li et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 4902 (2001)].

Recent spectroscopic analysis of charged particles generated by fusion reactions in direct-drive implosion experiments at the OMEGA laser facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] show the presence of low-mode-number asymmetries in compressed-capsule areal density (ρR) at the time of fusion burn. Experiments involved the acquisition and analysis of spectra of primary (14.7 MeV) protons, from capsules filled with deuterium and helium-3, and secondary (12.6–17.5 MeV) protons, from cryogenic deuterium capsules. The difference between the birth energy and measured energy of these protons provides a measure of the amount of material they passed through on their way out of a capsule, so measurements taken at different angles relative to a target provide information about angular variations in capsule areal density at burn time. Those variations have low-mode-number amplitudes as large as ±50% about the mean (which is typically ∼65 mg/cm2); high-mode-number structure can lead to individual pat...

The growth of surface perturbations due to nonuniformities in the drive laser is an important subject in laser–matter interactions. We present results of experiments using drive lasers with known, single-mode modulations to produce nonuniform shocks that propagate into planar plastic (CH) targets. An optical probe beam is used to measure the arrival of these modulated shocks at various surfaces in the target. Experiments at moderate laser intensities (≲1013 W/cm2) exhibit behavior predicted by hydrocodes and simple scaling laws. This technique will be used to observe various dynamic effects in laser-produced plasmas and shock-wave propagation.

The response of CR-39 track detectors to neutrons has been characterized and used to measure neutron yields from implosions of DD- and DT-filled targets at the OMEGA laser facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)], and the scaling of neutron fluence with R (the target-to-detector distance) has been used to characterize the fluence of backscattered neutrons in the target chamber. A Monte-Carlo code was developed to predict the CR-39 efficiency for detecting DD neutrons, and it agrees well with the measurements. Neutron detection efficiencies of (1.1±0.2)×10−4 and (6.0±0.7)×10−5 for the DD and DT cases, respectively, were determined for standard CR-39 etch conditions. In OMEGA experiments with both DD and DT targets, the neutron fluence was observed to decrease as R−2 up to about 45 cm; at larger distances, a significant backscattered neutron component was seen. The measured backscattered component appears to be spatially uniform, and agrees with predictions of a neutron-transport code. A...

A new x-ray diagnostic has been commissioned at the OMEGA laser facility at the University of Rochester. It is a transmission curved crystal spectrometer designed primarily to characterize the hot-electron energy distribution of laser generated plasmas by registering the continuum x-ray spectrum produced by these hot plasmas from 12 to 60 keV. The diagnostic package is assembled in a linear configuration to ride in a standard instrument insertion module. The instrument consists of a nosecone with a blast shield, spectrometer, electronic imager, drive electronics, and battery. The instrument is connected to the external diagnostic processor and control unit by trigger and data fiber optic cables. Time integrated spectra from various targets have been registered with high sensitivity from single shots of the OMEGA laser.

With new measurement techniques, high-resolution spectrometry of secondary fusion protons has been used to study compression and symmetry of imploded D2-filled capsules in direct-drive inertial-confinement-fusion experiments at the 60-beam OMEGA laser facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. Data from target capsules with ∼15 atmospheres of D2 fuel, in CH shells 19–27 μm thick, were acquired with a magnet-based, charged-particle spectrometer and with several new “wedge-range-filter”-based spectrometers incorporating special filters and CR39 nuclear track detectors. Capsules with 19-μm shells, imploded with similar laser energies (∼23 kJ) but different methods of single-beam laser smoothing, were studied and found to show different compression characteristics as indicated by the fuel areal density (determined by the ratio of secondary-proton yield to primary-neutron yield) and the total areal density (determined by the energy loss of protons due to slowing in the fuel and shell). In go...

The temporal evolution of inner-shell modulations, unstable during the deceleration phase of a laser-driven spherical implosion, has been measured through K-edge imaging [B. Yaakobi et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 3727 (2000)] of shells with titanium-doped layers. The main study was based on the implosions of 1 mm diam, 20 μm thick shells filled with either 18 atm or 4 atm of D3He gas driven with 23 kJ, 1 ns square laser pulses on OMEGA [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. These targets have similar modulation levels at the beginning of the deceleration phase due to similar modulation growths in the acceleration phase, but different modulation growths throughout the deceleration phase due to different fill pressures (convergence ratios). At peak compression, the measured inner surface, areal-density nonuniformity σrms levels were 23±5 % for more-stable 18 atm fill targets and 53±11 % for less-stable 4 atm fill targets. The inner-surface modulations grow throughout the deceleration phase due to Rayleigh–Taylor instability and Bell–Plesset convergence effects. The nonuniformity at peak compression is sensitive to the initial perturbation level as measured in implosions with different laser-smoothing conditions.