K. M. Campbell

Dante soft x-ray power diagnostic for National Ignition Facility

Soft x-ray power diagnostics are essential for measuring the total x-ray flux, radiation temperature, conversion efficiency, and albedo that define the energetics in indirect and direct drive, as well as other types of high temperature laser plasma experiments. A key diagnostic for absolute radiation flux and radiation temperature in hohlraum experiments is the Dante broadband soft x-ray spectrometer. For the extended range of x-ray fluxes predicted for National Ignition Facility (NIF) compared to Omega or Nova hohlraums, the Dante spectrometer for NIF will include more high energy (<2 keV) edge filter band-pass channels and access to an increased dynamic range using grids and signal division. This will allow measurements of radiation fluxes of between 0.01 to 100 TW/sr, for hohlraum radiation temperatures between 50 eV and 1 keV. The NIF Dante will include a central four-channel imaging line-of-sight to verify the source size, alignment as well as checking for any radiation contributions from unconverted...

Soft x-ray power diagnostic improvements at the Omega Laser Facility

Soft x-ray power diagnostics are essential for evaluating high temperature laser plasma experiments. The Dante soft x-ray spectrometer, a core diagnostic for radiation flux and temperature measurements of Hohlraums, installed on the Omega Laser Facility at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics has recently undergone a series of upgrades. Work performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory for the development of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Dante spectrometer enables the Omega Dante to offer a total of 18 absolutely calibrated channels in the energy range from 50eVto20keV. This feature provides Dante with the capability to measure higher, NIF relevant, radiation temperatures with increased accuracy including a differentiation of higher energy radiation such as the Au M and L bands. Diagnostic monitoring using experimental data from directly driven Au spherical shots is discussed.

Omega Dante soft x-ray power diagnostic component calibration at the National Synchrotron Light Source

The Dante soft x-ray spectrometer, installed on the Omega laser facility at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, is a 12-channel filter-edge defined soft x-ray power diagnostic. It is used to measure the spectrally resolved, absolute flux from direct drive, indirect drive (hohlraums) and other plasma sources. Dante component calibration efforts using two beam lines, U3C (50 eV–1 keV) and X8A (1–6 keV) at the National Synchrotron Light Source have been implemented to improve the accuracy of these measurements. We have calibrated metallic vacuum x-ray diodes, mirrors and filters.

Proof of principle experiments that demonstrate utility of cocktail hohlraums for indirect drive ignition

This work is a summary of experiments, numerical simulations, and analytic modeling that demonstrate improved radiation confinement when changing from a hohlraum made from gold to one made from a mixture of high Z materials (“cocktail”). First, the results from several previous planar sample experiments are described that demonstrated the potential of cocktail wall materials. Then a series of more recent experiments are described in which the radiation temperatures of hohlraums made from uranium-based cocktails were directly measured and compared with a gold reference hohlraum. Cocktail hohlraums meeting the oxygen specification (<5% atomic fraction oxygen) demonstrated an increase in radiation of up to 7 eV, agreeing well with modeling. When applied to an indirectly driven fusion capsule absorbing ∼160kJ of x-ray energy, these data suggest that a hohlraum made from a suitably chosen uranium-based cocktail would have about 17% less wall losses and require about 10% less laser energy than a gold hohlraum o...

Laser wavefront analyzer for imploding plasma density and current profile measurements

The laser wavefront analyzer (LWA) consists of a polarized laser beam pulse that traverses an imploding z-pinch, and a microlens array that focuses the laser beam into a large number (104) of very tiny spots. LWA image analysis determines the refractive bending angles (due to density gradients) and Faraday rotation angles (due to the magnetic field-density integral) throughout the plasma cross section. Electron density and current distributions are derived from LWA data in an imploding gas-puff z-pinch plasma.

Experimental measurement of Au M-band flux in indirectly driven double-shell implosions

Indirectly driven double-shell implosions are being investigated as a possible noncryogenic path to ignition on the National Ignition Facility [J. A. Paisner, J. D. Boyes, S. A. Kumpan, W. H. Lowdermilk, and M. S. Sorem, Laser Focus World 30, 75 (1994)]. In recent double-shell experiments, the inner shell trajectory was shown to exhibit a strong sensitivity to the temporal history of the M-band (2–5keV) radiation emitted from the Au hohlraum wall. A large time-dependent discrepancy was observed between measurement and simulation of the x-ray flux in this range. In order to better characterize the radiation environment seen in these implosions, an experimental campaign was conducted on the Omega laser. A number of diagnostics were used to measure both the temporal and spectral nature of the M-band flux. Results were obtained from an absolutely calibrated 12-channel filtered x-ray diode array (Dante) as well as two streaked crystal spectrometers and an absolutely calibrated time-integrated spectrometer (Hen...

Laser coupling to reduced-scale hohlraum targets at the Early Light Program of the National Ignition Facility

A platform for analysis of material properties under extreme conditions, where a sample is bathed in radiation with a high temperature, is under development. Depositing maximum laser energy into a small, high-Z enclosure produces this hot environment. Such targets were recently included in an experimental campaign using the first four of the 192 beams of the National Ignition Facility [J. A. Paisner, E. M. Campbell, and W. J. Hogan, Fusion Technol. 26, 755 (1994)], under construction at the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These targets demonstrate good laser coupling, reaching a radiation temperature of 340 eV. In addition, there is a unique wavelength dependence of the Raman backscattered light that is consistent with Brillouin backscatter of Raman forward scatter [A. B. Langdon and D. E. Hinkel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 015003 (2002)]. Finally, novel diagnostic capabilities indicate that 20% of the direct backscatter from these reduced-scale targets is in the polarization or...

First hohlraum drive studies on the National Ignition Facility

The first hohlraum experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G. H. Miller, E. I. Moses, and C. R. Wuest, Nucl. Fusion 44, 228 (2004)] using the first four laser beams have activated the indirect-drive experimental capabilities and tested radiation temperature limits imposed by hohlraum plasma filling. Vacuum hohlraums have been irradiated with laser powers up to 9 TW, 1 to 9ns long square pulses and energies of up to 17kJ to study the hohlraum radiation temperature scaling with the laser power and hohlraum size, and to make contact with hohlraum experiments performed previously at other laser facilities. Furthermore, for a variety of hohlraum sizes and pulse lengths, the measured x-ray flux shows signatures of plasma filling that coincide with hard x-ray emission from plasma streaming out of the hohlraum. These observations agree with hydrodynamic simulations and with analytical modeling that includes hydrodynamic and coronal radiative losses. The modeling predicts radiation temperature limits ...

Radiation hard diamond laser beam profiler with subnanosecond temporal resolution

A two-dimensional detector array has been fabricated from a single 10-mm-diam by 100-μm-thick chemical vapor deposition diamond disk by applying a 1×1 mm2 metallization grid of 4×4 pixels with centered bias connections. This diamond has been exposed to high power pulsed laser radiation. It has been shown that this kind of diamond array operates as a radiation hard, ultrafast laser beam profiler and can obtain spatial profiles with 500 ps temporal resolution. Ten spatial profiles were obtained within a single 5 ns duration laser pulse, revealing in detail the temporal and spatial development of the laser beam intensity. No attenuation is necessary for this profiler when making single-shot measurements at intensities up to ∼100 MW/cm2.

First laser-plasma interaction and hohlraum experiments on the national ignition facility

Recently the first laser–plasma interaction and hohlraum experiments have been performed at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in support of indirect drive inertial confinement fusion designs. The effects of laser beam smoothing by spectral dispersion and polarization smoothing on the intense (2 × 1015 W cm−2) beam propagation in gas-filled tubes has been studied at up to 7 mm plasma scales as found in indirect drive gas filled ignition hohlraum designs. These experiments have shown the expected full propagation without filamentation and beam break up when using full laser smoothing. In addition, vacuum hohlraums have been irradiated with laser powers up to 6 TW, 1–9 ns pulse lengths and energies up to 17 kJ to activate several diagnostics, to study the hohlraum radiation temperature scaling with the laser power and hohlraum size, and to make contact with hohlraum experiments performed at the Nova and Omega laser facilities. Subsequently, novel long laser pulse hohlraum experiments have tested models of hohlraum plasma filling and long pulse hohlraum radiation production. The validity of the plasma filling assessment using in analytical models and radiation hydrodynamics calculations with the code LASNEX has been proven in these studies. The comparison of these results with modelling will be discussed.