B. H. Failor

Target diagnostic system for the national ignition facility (invited)

A review of recent progress on the design of a diagnostic system proposed for ignition target experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) will be presented. This diagnostic package contains an extensive suite of optical, x ray, gamma ray, and neutron diagnostics that enable measurements of the performance of both direct and indirect driven NIF targets. The philosophy used in designing all of the diagnostics in the set has emphasized redundant and independent measurement of fundamental physical quantities relevant to the operation of the NIF target. A unique feature of these diagnostics is that they are being designed to be capable of operating in the high radiation, electromagnetic pulse, and debris backgrounds expected on the NIF facility. The diagnostic system proposed can be categorized into three broad areas: laser characterization, hohlraum characterization, and capsule performance diagnostics. The operating principles of a representative instrument from each class of diagnostic employed in t...

Measurements of laser-plasma instability relevant to ignition hohlraums

The potential for laser-plasma instability is a serious concern for indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), where laser beams illuminate the interior of a cavity (called a hohlraum) to produce x-rays for imploding a fusion capsule symmetrically. The speckled nature of laser beams used in ICF is an important factor in laser-plasma instability processes. For example, models which calculate the spatial growth of convective instability by properly accounting for the laser speckles successfully predict the observed onsets of backscattering due to stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering instabilities (SBS and SRS). Assuming pump depletion as the only saturation mechanism in these models results in very large predicted levels of SBS and SRS backscattering from the long-scale plasmas expected in ignition hohlraums. However, in the long-scale plasmas studied in the Nova and Trident lasers [E. M. Campbell, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 57, 2101 (1986) and N. K. Moncur et al., Appl. Opt. 34, 4274 (1995)], SRS and S...

Observation of reduced beam deflection using smoothed beams in gas-filled hohlraum symmetry experiments at Nova

Execution and modeling of drive symmetry experiments in gas-filled hohlraums have been pursued to provide both a better understanding of radiation symmetry in such hohlraums and to verify the accuracy of the design tools which are used to predict target performance for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [J. Lindl, Phys. Plasmas 2, 3933 (1995)]. In this paper, the results of a series of drive symmetry experiments using gas-filled hohlraums at the Nova laser facility [C. Bibeau et al., Appl. Opt. 31, 5799 (1992)] at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are presented. A very important element of these experiments was the use of kineform phase plates (KPP) to smooth the Nova beams. The effect of smoothing the ten Nova beams with KPP phase plates is to remove most of the beam bending which had been observed previously, leaving a residual bending of only 1.5°, equivalent to a 35 μm pointing offset at the hohlraum wall. The results show that the symmetry variation with pointing of implosions in gas-filled ho...

Transient x-ray diffraction used to diagnose shock compressed Si crystals on the Nova laser

Transient x-ray diffraction is used to record time-resolved information about the shock compression of materials. This technique has been applied on Nova shock experiments driven using a hohlraum x-ray drive. Data were recorded from the shock release at the free surface of a Si crystal, as well as from Si at an embedded ablator/Si interface. Modeling has been done to simulate the diffraction data incorporating the strained crystal rocking curves and Bragg diffraction efficiencies. Examples of the data and post-processed simulations are presented.

Diagnostic systems for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) (invited)

A tentative schedule of experiments for the ignition campaign on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has been developed. These experiments will be used to validate beam pointing and balance, to tune time history and symmetry of drive of NIF hohlraums, and to implode subignition and igniting targets. The initial target diagnostics are designed to validate beam pointing and to demonstrate the properties of the hohlraums.

DEVELOPING SOLID-STATE EXPERIMENTS ON THE NOVA LASER

An X-ray drive has been developed to shock compress metal foils in the solid state using an internally shielded hohlraum with a high contrast shaped pulse from the Nova laser. The drive has been characterized, and hydrodynamics experiments designed to study the growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability in Cu foils at 3 Mbar peak pressures in the plastic flow regime have been started. Preimposed modulations with an initial wavelength of 20-50 {mu}m and amplitudes of 1.0-2.5 {mu}m show growth consistent with simulations. In the Nova experiments, the fluid and solid states are expected to behave similarly for Cu. An analytic stability analysis is used to motivate an experimental design with an Al foil where the effects of material strength of the R-T growth are significantly enhanced. The conditions reached in the metal foils at peak compression are similar to those predicted at the core of Earth. (c) 2000 The American Astronomical Society.

Bragg‐diffraction x‐ray spectrographs for the determination of Te in 2–3‐mm‐sized laser‐produced plasmas on NOVA

We have developed spectrographs to measure the electron temperature in gas‐filled targets and low‐density foams, and find it to nominally fall in the 2–4‐keV range. The instrument we designed, built, and fielded can simultaneously record the Ti Heα and Cr Heα line emission. After compensating for the instrumental response, we can estimate the electron temperature from this line ratio to within ±15%.

Te measurements in open‐ and closed‐geometry long‐scale‐length laser plasmas via isoelectronic x‐ray spectral line ratios

We have successfully employed isoelectronic line ratios to measure the electron temperature in gas‐filled hohlraums and ‘‘gas bags’’ shot with the Nova laser. Isoelectronic line ratios are well suited to this measurement because they are relatively insensitive to radiation field effects (in hohlraums), opacity, transients, and variations in electron density compared to conventional line ratios. Targets were designed to produce plasma parameters Te∼3 keV and Ne∼1021 cm−3 over a scale length of ∼2 mm. Collisional‐radiative, transient K‐shell atomic kinetics calculations including line transfer were performed by post‐processing the Lasnex results. By comparing these calculations with experimental data, we infer electron temperatures of at least 3 keV for both types of targets.