Precision shock tuning on the national ignition facility.

Ignition implosions on the National Ignition Facility [J. D. Lindl et al., Phys. Plasmas 11, 339 (2004)] are underway with the goal of compressing deuterium-tritium fuel to a sufficiently high areal density (ρR) to sustain a self-propagating burn wave required for fusion power gain greater than unity. These implosions are driven with a very carefully tailored sequence of four shock waves that must be timed to very high precision to keep the fuel entropy and adiabat low and ρR high. The first series of precision tuning experiments on the National Ignition Facility, which use optical diagnostics to directly measure the strength and timing of all four shocks inside a hohlraum-driven, cryogenic liquid-deuterium-filled capsule interior have now been performed. The results of these experiments are presented demonstrating a significant decrease in adiabat over previously untuned implosions. The impact of the improved shock timing is confirmed in related deuterium-tritium layered capsule implosions, which show the highest fuel compression (ρR~1.0 g/cm(2)) measured to date, exceeding the previous record [V. Goncharov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 165001 (2010)] by more than a factor of 3. The experiments also clearly reveal an issue with the 4th shock velocity, which is observed to be 20% slower than predictions from numerical simulation.

Amplification of light in a plasma by stimulated ion acoustic waves driven by multiple crossing pump beams.

Experiments demonstrate the amplification of 351 nm laser light in a hot dense plasma similar to those in inertial confinement fusion ignition experiments. A seed beam interacts with one or two counter-propagating pump beams, each with an intensity of 1.2×10(15) W/cm2 at 351 nm, crossing the seed at 24.8° at the position where the flow is Mach 1, allowing resonant stimulation of ion acoustic waves. Results show that the energy and power transferred to the seed are increased with two pumps beyond the level that occurs with a single pump, demonstrating that, under conditions similar to ignition experiments where each beam has a low gain exponent, the total scatter produced by the multiple beams can be significantly larger than that of the individual beams. It is further demonstrated that the amplification is greatly reduced when the pump polarization is orthogonal to the seed, as expected from models of stimulated scatter.

Three-wavelength scheme to optimize hohlraum coupling on the National Ignition Facility.

By using three tunable wavelengths on different cones of laser beams on the National Ignition Facility, numerical simulations show that the energy transfer between beams can be tuned to redistribute the energy within the cones of beams most prone to backscatter instabilities. These radiative hydrodynamics and laser-plasma interaction simulations have been tested against large-scale hohlraum experiments with two tunable wavelengths and reproduce the hohlraum energetics and symmetry. Using a third wavelength provides a greater level of control of the laser energy distribution and coupling in the hohlraum, and could significantly reduce stimulated Raman scattering losses and increase the hohlraum radiation drive while maintaining a good implosion symmetry.

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.

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.

Symmetric inertial confinement fusion implosions at ultra-high laser energies.

Indirect-drive hohlraum experiments at the National Ignition Facility have demonstrated symmetric capsule implosions at unprecedented laser drive energies of 0.7 megajoule. One hundred and ninety-two simultaneously fired laser beams heat ignition-emulate hohlraums to radiation temperatures of 3.3 million kelvin, compressing 1.8-millimeter-diameter capsules by the soft x-rays produced by the hohlraum. Self-generated plasma optics gratings on either end of the hohlraum tune the laser power distribution in the hohlraum, which produces a symmetric x-ray drive as inferred from the shape of the capsule self-emission. These experiments indicate that the conditions are suitable for compressing deuterium-tritium-filled capsules, with the goal of achieving burning fusion plasmas and energy gain in the laboratory.

Demonstration of high-energy 2 omega (526.5 nm) operation on the National Ignition Facility Laser System.

A single beamline of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has been operated at a wavelength of 526.5 nm (2 omega) by frequency converting the fundamental 1053 nm (1 omega) wavelength with an 18.2 mm thick type-I potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) second-harmonic generator (SHG) crystal. Second-harmonic energies of up to 17.9 kJ were measured at the final optics focal plane with a conversion efficiency of 82%. For a similarly configured 192-beam NIF, this scales to a total 2 omega energy of 3.4 MJ full NIF equivalent (FNE).

National Ignition Facility laser performance status.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world's largest laser system. It contains a 192 beam neodymium glass laser that is designed to deliver 1.8 MJ at 500 TW at 351 nm in order to achieve energy gain (ignition) in a deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion target. To meet this goal, laser design criteria include the ability to generate pulses of up to 1.8 MJ total energy, with peak power of 500 TW and temporal pulse shapes spanning 2 orders of magnitude at the third harmonic (351 nm or 3omega) of the laser wavelength. The focal-spot fluence distribution of these pulses is carefully controlled, through a combination of special optics in the 1omega (1053 nm) portion of the laser (continuous phase plates), smoothing by spectral dispersion, and the overlapping of multiple beams with orthogonal polarization (polarization smoothing). We report performance qualification tests of the first eight beams of the NIF laser. Measurements are reported at both 1omega and 3omega, both with and without focal-spot conditioning. When scaled to full 192 beam operation, these results demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, that the NIF will meet its laser performance design criteria, and that the NIF can simultaneously meet the temporal pulse shaping, focal-spot conditioning, and peak power requirements for two candidate indirect drive ignition designs.

Radiation-driven hydrodynamics of high- hohlraums on the national ignition facility.

The first hohlraum experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using the initial four laser beams tested radiation temperature limits imposed by plasma filling. For a variety of hohlraum sizes and pulse lengths, the measured x-ray flux shows signatures of filling that coincide with hard x-ray emission from plasma streaming out of the hohlraum. These observations agree with hydrodynamic simulations and with an analytical model that includes hydrodynamic and coronal radiative losses. The modeling predicts radiation temperature limits with full NIF (1.8 MJ), greater, and of longer duration than required for ignition hohlraums.

Experimental investigation of high-mach-number 3D hydrodynamic jets at the national ignition facility.

The first hydrodynamic experiments were performed on the National Ignition Facility. A supersonic jet was formed via the interaction of a laser driven shock ( approximately 40 Mbar) with 2D and 3D density perturbations. The temporal evolution of the jet's spatial scales and ejected mass were measured with point-projection x-ray radiography. Measurements of the large-scale features and mass are in good agreement with 2D and 3D numerical simulations. These experiments provide quantitative data on the evolution of 3D supersonic jets and provide insight into their 3D behavior.