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The performance of indirectly driven fusion capsules has been improved by mid Z doping of the plastic capsule ablator. The doping increases x‐ray preheat shielding leading to a more isentropic compression, higher convergence, and higher neutron yield. A 4× increase in neutron yield is both calculated and observed as the Ge doping level is increased from 0% to 3% by atomic fraction. A predicted 40% decrease in x‐ray image core size with increasing Ge content is confirmed.

Indirectly-driven implosions for which the predicted Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability growth rates of pre-imposed capsule surface perturbations are substantially increased by mid-Z-doping of the ablators have been fielded on the Nova laser. The multiple effects on implosion performance of the additional x-ray opacity provided by the ablator dopant is discussed. For best surface finish capsules, the addition of increasing ablator dopant levels is shown to improve the neutron yield. However, as capsule surface roughness is increased, so that RT instability growth increases, this trend is reversed, leading to decreasing yields with increased dopant content. The RT-induced mixing between shell and fuel is further investigated by diagnosing the x-ray emission levels and time histories from Ti and Ar dopants in capsules with predetermined surface roughness. The x-ray line ratios show the expected decrease in fuel temperature with increasing surface roughness. The spectral content, intensity and duration of the Ti spectra, however, suggest 2- or 3-D rather than just 1-D effects are important so that higher than 1-D models of the mix region may be needed.

Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability of the pusher-fuel interface occurring upon acceleration and deceleration of the pusher is of major concern for current and future ICF experiments. One common diagnostic technique for measuring pusher-fuel mix in spherical implosion experiments involves placing spectroscopic dopants both in the capsule fuel region and the innermost region of the capsule wall adjacent to the fuel. As the degree of pusher-fuel mix is increased the pusher dopant x-ray emission increases relative to that of the fuel dopant. Spherical implosion experiments of this type using Ar and Ti dopants in the fuel and pusher, respectively, are being carried out on Nova. We first show that the Ti He-α Ar He-β line ratio shows promise as a mix diagnostic for high growth factor targets. We then discuss some of the important physical processes underlying Ar and Ti spectral line formation in these targets and discuss how these processes affect the calculation of simulated spectra. The importance of radiative transfer as well as high-density plasma phenomena such as continuum lowering and Stark broadening is demonstrated. The simulated spectra are also observed to be sensitive to assumptions regarding the treatment of electron thermal conduction in the mix region. Spectral postprocessing of 2-D hydrodynamic simulations using detailed line transfer methods has been carried out and implies that simple escape factor treatments must be tested carefully before they can be relied upon. Preliminary comparisons of experimental data with simulation are presented. It is shown that the computed spectra is sensitive to the laser energy and pusher temperature. These comparisons to data also imply that the inclusion of convective effects in computing the electron temperature profile through the mix region is necessary in order to satisfactorily model experimental spectra.

Of primary concern in next generation inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion experiments is Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability of the pusher‐fuel interface occurring upon acceleration and deceleration of the pusher. This results in mixing of hot fuel with cold pusher material. One method of diagnosing mix in this case is to place spectroscopic dopants both in the capsule fuel region and the innermost region of the capsule wall adjacent to the fuel. As the degree of pusher/fuel mix is increased (typically through placement of controlled perturbations on the outer surface of the capsule) the pusher dopant x‐ray emission increases relative to that of the fuel dopant. Experiments of this type using indirectly driven implosions have been carried out on Nova. In this paper we describe some of the important physics issues underlying spectral line formation in these targets and discuss how they are manifested in the modeling and interpretation of experimental data. The importance of radiative transfer as well ...

In order to prevent high‐Z plasma from filling in the hohlraum in indirect drive experiments, a low‐Z material, or tamper is introduced into the hohlraum. This material, when fully ionized is typically less than one‐tenth of the critical density for the laser light used to illuminate the hohlraum. This tamper absorbs little of the laser light, thus allowing most of the laser energy to be absorbed in the high‐Z material. However, the pressure associated with this tamper is sufficient to keep the hohlraum wall material from moving a significant distance into the interior of the hohlraum. In this paper we discuss measurements of the motion of the interface between the tamper and the high‐Z hohlraum material. We also present measurements of the effect the tamper has on the hohlraum temperature.

The degradation in implosion performance of surface‐pitted, indirectly driven Br‐doped capsules which have been intentionally designed to be susceptible to large hydrodynamic instability growth has been systematically and reproducibly measured by a wide array of x‐ray and neutron diagnostics. Primary and secondary neutron yields, and x‐ray line ratios and durations from Ar and Ti fuel and pusher dopants are presented, showing clear sensitivity to increasing surface roughness and by inference, increasing pusher‐fuel mix. The sensitivity of core x‐ray emissivity and neutron bang‐times to micron variations in capsule ablator thickness is also demonstrated. The experimental trends are compared to expectations based on two different models for the effects of instability growth at the pusher‐fuel interface (atomic mixing versus Rayleigh–Taylor bubble‐and‐spike growth).

The influence of phi, the angle between the interplanetary magnetic field and the earth-sun vector on ions and electrons in the earth's bow shock, was investigated in terms of ISEE 2 data. A small phi was associated with intermediate energy upstream ions and reduced populations of low energy, about 1.6 keV, ion fluxes. The magnitude of phi was closely related to particular, constant energy levels, e.g., a phi of 40 deg and an energy of 30 keV and a phi of 75 deg and an energy of 6 keV. Ion fluxes are high in the angles form 60-80 deg and feature energies of 55-280 keV. The acceleration process up to the high energy levels in the 1-3 min interval from upstream to downstream occurs more rapidly than could be accounted for by a first-order Fermi process.

A balloon payload designed to study the processes of energy release, particle acceleration, and heating of the active corona in hard X-ray microflares and normal flares is described. An array of liquid nitrogen-cooled germanium detectors together with large area phoswich scintillation detectors provide the highest sensitivity (about 500 sq cm) and energy resolution (not greater than 0.7 keV) ever achieved for solar hard X-ray (about 15-600 keV) measurements. These detectors were flown in February 1987 from Australia on a long duration radiation controlled balloon flight (LDBF) which provided 12 days of observations before cutdown in Brazil. The payload includes solar cells for power, pointing, and navigation sensors, a microprocessor controlled data system with VCR tape storage, and transmitters for GOES and ARGOS spacecraft. This successful flight illustrates the potential of LDBFs for solar flare studies.

Evidence is presented that nonlinear wave-wave interactions occur in type III solar radio bursts. Intense, spiky Langmuir waves are observed to be driven by electron beams associated with type III solar radio bursts in the interplanetary medium. Bursts of 30-300 Hz (in the spacecraft frame) waves are often observed coincident in time with the most intense spikes of the Langmuir waves. These low-frequency waves appear to be long-wavelength ion acoustic waves, with wavenumber approximately equal to the beam resonant Langmuir wavenumber. Three possible interpretations of these observations are considered: modulational instability, parametric decay of the parent Langmuir waves to daughter ion acoustic and Langmuir waves, and decay to daughter electromagnetic waves and ion acoustic waves.