Time-Resolved Fuel Density Profiles of the Stagnation Phase of Indirect-Drive Inertial Confinement Implosions.

The implosion efficiency in inertial confinement fusion depends on the degree of stagnated fuel compression, density uniformity, sphericity, and minimum residual kinetic energy achieved. Compton scattering-mediated 50-200 keV x-ray radiographs of indirect-drive cryogenic implosions at the National Ignition Facility capture the dynamic evolution of the fuel as it goes through peak compression, revealing low-mode 3D nonuniformities and thicker fuel with lower peak density than simulated. By differencing two radiographs taken at different times during the same implosion, we also measure the residual kinetic energy not transferred to the hot spot and quantify its impact on the implosion performance.

Observation of high soft x-ray drive in large-scale hohlraums at the National Ignition Facility.

The first soft x-ray radiation flux measurements from hohlraums using both a 96 and a 192 beam configuration at the National Ignition Facility have shown high x-ray conversion efficiencies of ∼85%-90%. These experiments employed gold vacuum hohlraums, 6.4 mm long and 3.55 mm in diameter, heated with laser energies between 150-635 kJ. The hohlraums reached radiation temperatures of up to 340 eV. These hohlraums for the first time reached coronal plasma conditions sufficient for two-electron processes and coronal heat conduction to be important for determining the radiation drive.

Production of relativistic electrons at subrelativistic laser intensities.

Relativistic electron temperatures were measured from kilojoule, subrelativistic laser-plasma interactions. Experiments show an order of magnitude higher temperatures than expected from a ponderomotive scaling, where temperatures of up to 2.2 MeV were generated using an intensity of 1×10^{18}W/cm^{2}. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations suggest that electrons gain superponderomotive energies by stochastic acceleration as they sample a large area of rapidly changing laser phase. We demonstrate that such high temperatures are possible from subrelativistic intensities by using lasers with long pulse durations and large spatial scales.

Modeling of neutron induced backgrounds in x-ray framing cameras.

Fast neutrons from inertial confinement fusion implosions pose a severe background to conventional multichannel plate (MCP)-based x-ray framing cameras for deuterium-tritium yields >10(13). Nuclear reactions of neutrons in photosensitive elements (charge coupled device or film) cause some of the image noise. In addition, inelastic neutron collisions in the detector and nearby components create a large gamma pulse. The background from the resulting secondary charged particles is twofold: (1) production of light through the Cherenkov effect in optical components and by excitation of the MCP phosphor and (2) direct excitation of the photosensitive elements. We give theoretical estimates of the various contributions to the overall noise and present mitigation strategies for operating in high yield environments.

Radiation hardening of gated x-ray imagers for the National Ignition Facility (invited).

The National Ignition Facility will soon be producing x-ray flux and neutron yields higher than any produced in laser driven implosion experiments in the past. Even a non-igniting capsule will require x-ray imaging of near burning plasmas at 10(17) neutrons, requiring x-ray recording systems to work in more hostile conditions than we have encountered in past laser facilities. We will present modeling, experimental data and design concepts for x-ray imaging with electronic recording systems for this environment (ARIANE). A novel instrument, active readout in a nuclear environment, is described which uses the time-of-flight difference between the gated x-ray signal and the neutron which induces a background signal to increase the yield at which gated cameras can be used.

Experimental study of neutron induced background noise on gated x-ray framing cameras.

A temporally gated x-ray framing camera based on a proximity focus microchannel plate is one of the most important diagnostic tools of inertial confinement fusion experiments. However, fusion neutrons produced in imploded capsules interact with structures surrounding the camera and produce background to x-ray signals. To understand the mechanisms of this neutron induced background, we tested several gated x-ray cameras in the presence of 14 MeV neutrons produced at the Omega laser facility. Differences between background levels observed with photographic film readout and charge-coupled-device readout have been studied.

The first measurements of soft x-ray flux from ignition scale Hohlraums at the National Ignition Facility using DANTE (invited).

The first 96 and 192 beam vacuum Hohlraum target experiments have been fielded at the National Ignition Facility demonstrating radiation temperatures up to 340 eV and fluxes of 20 TW/sr as viewed by DANTE representing an ∼20 times flux increase over NOVA/Omega scale Hohlraums. The vacuum Hohlraums were irradiated with 2 ns square laser pulses with energies between 150 and 635 kJ. They produced nearly Planckian spectra with about 30±10% more flux than predicted by the preshot radiation hydrodynamic simulations. To validate these results, careful verification of all component calibrations, cable deconvolution, and software analysis routines has been conducted. In addition, a half Hohlraum experiment was conducted using a single 2 ns long axial quad with an irradiance of ∼2×10(15) W/cm(2) for comparison with NIF Early Light experiments completed in 2004. We have also completed a conversion efficiency test using a 128-beam nearly uniformly illuminated gold sphere with intensities kept low (at 1×10(14) W/cm(2) over 5 ns) to avoid sensitivity to modeling uncertainties for nonlocal heat conduction and nonlinear absorption mechanisms, to compare with similar intensity, 3 ns OMEGA sphere results. The 2004 and 2009 NIF half-Hohlraums agreed to 10% in flux, but more importantly, the 2006 OMEGA Au Sphere, the 2009 NIF Au sphere, and the calculated Au conversion efficiency agree to ±5% in flux, which is estimated to be the absolute calibration accuracy of the DANTEs. Hence we conclude that the 30±10% higher than expected radiation fluxes from the 96 and 192 beam vacuum Hohlraums are attributable to differences in physics of the larger Hohlraums.