R. L. McCrory

Initial performance results of the OMEGA laser system

Abstract OMEGA is a 60-terawatt, 60-beam, frequency-tripled Nd:glass laser system designed to perform precision direct-drive inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) experiments. The upgrade to the system, completed in April 1995, met or surpassed all technical requirements. The acceptance tests demonstrated exceptional performance throughout the system: high driver stability (

Progress toward Ignition and Burn Propagation in Inertial Confinement Fusion

For the past four decades, scientists throughout the world have pursued the dream of controlled thermonuclear fusion. The attraction of this goal is the enormous energy that is potentially available in fusion fuels and the view of fusion as a safe, clean energy source. The fusion reaction with the highest cross section uses the deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen, and D‐T would be the fuel of choice for the first generation of fusion reactors. (See the article by J. Geoffrey Cordey, Robert J. Goldston and Ronald R. Parker, January, page 22.)

Direct-Drive Laser Fusion; Status and Prospects

Techniques have been developed to improve the uniformity of the laser focal profile, to reduce the ablative Rayleigh–Taylor instability, and to suppress the various laser–plasma instabilities. There are now three direct-drive ignition target designs that utilize these techniques. An evaluation of these designs is still ongoing. Some of them may achieve the gains above 100 that are necessary for a fusion reactor. Two laser systems have been proposed that may meet all of the requirements for a fusion reactor.

Growth rates of the ablative Rayleigh–Taylor instability in inertial confinement fusion

A simple procedure is developed to determine the Froude number Fr, the effective power index for thermal conduction ν, the ablation-front thickness L0, the ablation velocity Va, and the acceleration g of laser-accelerated ablation fronts. These parameters are determined by fitting the density and pressure profiles obtained from one-dimensional numerical simulations with the analytic isobaric profiles of Kull and Anisimov [Phys. Fluids 29, 2067 (1986)]. These quantities are then used to calculate the growth rate of the ablative Rayleigh–Taylor instability using the theory developed by Goncharov et al. [Phys. Plasmas 3, 4665 (1996)]. The complicated expression of the growth rate (valid for arbitrary Froude numbers) derived by Goncharov et al. is simplified by using reasonably accurate fitting formulas.

Direct‐drive laser‐fusion experiments with the OMEGA, 60‐beam, >40 kJ, ultraviolet laser system

OMEGA, a 60‐beam, 351 nm, Nd:glass laser with an on‐target energy capability of more than 40 kJ, is a flexible facility that can be used for both direct‐ and indirect‐drive targets and is designed to ultimately achieve irradiation uniformity of 1% on direct‐drive capsules with shaped laser pulses (dynamic range ≳400:1). The OMEGA program for the next five years includes plasma physics experiments to investigate laser–matter interaction physics at temperatures, densities, and scale lengths approaching those of direct‐drive capsules designed for the 1.8 MJ National Ignition Facility (NIF); experiments to characterize and mitigate the deleterious effects of hydrodynamic instabilities; and implosion experiments with capsules that are hydrodynamically equivalent to high‐gain, direct‐drive capsules. Details are presented of the OMEGA direct‐drive experimental program and initial data from direct‐drive implosion experiments that have achieved the highest thermonuclear yield (1014 DT neutrons) and yield efficienc...

High-Energy Petawatt Capability for the Omega Laser

The 60-beam Omega laser system at the University of Rochesters Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) has been a workhorse on the frontier of laser fusion and high-energy-density physics for more than a decade. LLE scientists are currently extending the performance of this unique, direct-drive laser system by adding high-energy petawatt capabilities.

Analysis of a direct-drive ignition capsule designed for the National Ignition Facility

This paper reviews the current direct-drive ignition capsule designed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [M. D. Campbell and W. J. Hogan, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, B39 (1999)]. The ignition design consists of a cryogenic deuterium–tritium (DT) shell contained within a very thin CH shell. To maintain shell integrity during the implosion, the target is placed on an isentrope approximately three times that of Fermi-degenerate DT (α=3). One-dimensional studies show that the ignition design is robust. Two-dimensional simulations examine the effects on target performance due to laser imprint, power imbalance, and inner- and outer-target-surface roughness. Results from these studies indicate that the capsule gain can be scaled to the ice/vapor surface deformation at the end of the acceleration stage of the implosion. The physical reason for gain reduction as a function of increasing nonuniformities is examined. Simulations show that direct-drive target gains in excess of 30 can be achieved for an in...

Self‐consistent stability analysis of ablation fronts in inertial confinement fusion

The linear stability analysis of accelerated ablation fronts is carried out self‐consistently by retaining the effect of finite thermal conductivity. Its temperature dependence along with the density gradient scale length are adjusted to fit the density profiles obtained in the one‐dimensional simulations. The effects of diffusive radiation transport are included through the nonlinear thermal conductivity (κ∼Tν). The growth rate is derived by using a boundary layer analysis for Fr≫1 (Fr is the Froude number) and a WKB approximation for Fr≪1. The self‐consistent Atwood number depends on the mode wavelength and the power law index for thermal conduction. The analytic growth rate and cutoff wave number are in good agreement with the numerical solutions for arbitrary ν≳1.

Self‐consistent stability analysis of ablation fronts with large Froude numbers

The linear stability analysis of accelerated ablation fronts is carried out self‐consistently by retaining the effect of finite thermal conductivity. Its temperature dependence is included through a power law (κ∼Tν) with a power index ν≳1. The growth rate is derived for Fr≫1 (Fr is the Froude number) by using a boundary layer analysis. The self‐consistent Atwood number and the ablative stabilization term depend on the mode wavelength, the density gradient scale length, and the power index ν. The analytic formula for the growth rate is shown to be in excellent agreement with the numerical fit of Takabe, Mima, Montierth, and Morse [Phys. Fluids 28, 3676 (1985)] for ν=2.5 and the numerical results of Kull [Phys. Fluids B 1, 170 (1989)] over a large range of ν’s.

Improved performance of direct-drive inertial confinement fusion target designs with adiabat shaping using an intensity picket

Hydrodynamicinstabilities seeded by laser imprint and surface roughness limit the compression ratio and neutron yield in the direct-drive inertial confinement fusion target designs. New improved-performance designs use adiabat shaping to increase the entropy of only the outer portion of the shell, reducing the instability growth. The inner portion of the shell is kept on a lower entropy to maximize shell compressibility. The adiabat shaping is implemented using a high-intensity picket in front of the main-drive pulse. The picket launches a strong shock that decays as it propagates through the shell. This increases the ablation velocity and reduces the Rayleigh–Taylor growth rates. In addition, as shown earlier [T.J.B. Collins and S. Skupsky, Phys. Plasmas 9, 275 (2002)], the picket reduces the instability seed due to the laser imprint. To test the results of calculations, a series of the picket pulse implosions of CH capsules were performed on the OMEGA laser system [T.R. Boehly, D.L. Brown, R.S. Craxton et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. The experiments demonstrated a significant improvement in target yields for the pulses with the picket compared to the pulses without the picket. Results of the theory and experiments with adiabat shaping are being extended to future OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility’s [J.A. Paisner, J.D. Boyes, S.A. Kumpan, W.H. Lowdermilk, and M.S. Sorem, Laser Focus World 30, 75 (1994)] cryogenic target designs.