Xufei Xie

First Investigation on the Radiation Field of the Spherical Hohlraum.

The first spherical hohlraum energetics experiment is accomplished on the SGIII-prototype laser facility. In the experiment, the radiation temperature is measured by using an array of flat-response x-ray detectors (FXRDs) through a laser entrance hole at four different angles. The radiation temperature and M-band fraction inside the hohlraum are determined by the shock wave technique. The experimental observations indicate that the radiation temperatures measured by the FXRDs depend on the observation angles and are related to the view field. According to the experimental results, the conversion efficiency of the vacuum spherical hohlraum is in the range from 60% to 80%. Although this conversion efficiency is less than the conversion efficiency of the near vacuum hohlraum on the National Ignition Facility, it is consistent with that of the cylindrical hohlraums used on the NOVA and the SGIII-prototype at the same energy scale.

Experimental demonstration of low laser-plasma instabilities in gas-filled spherical hohlraums at laser injection angle designed for ignition target

Octahedral spherical hohlraums with a single laser ring at an injection angle of 55^{∘} are attractive concepts for laser indirect drive due to the potential for achieving the x-ray drive symmetry required for high convergence implosions. Laser-plasma instabilities, however, are a concern given the long laser propagation path in such hohlraums. Significant stimulated Raman scattering has been observed in cylindrical hohlraums with similar laser propagation paths during the ignition campaign on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). In this Rapid Communication, experiments demonstrating low levels of laser-driven plasma instability (LPI) in spherical hohlraums with a laser injection angle of 55^{∘} are reported and compared to that observed with cylindrical hohlraums with injection angles of 28.5^{∘} and 55^{∘}, similar to that of the NIF. Significant LPI is observed with the laser injection of 28.5^{∘} in the cylindrical hohlraum where the propagation path is similar to the 55^{∘} injection angle for the spherical hohlraum. The experiments are performed on the SGIII laser facility with a total 0.35-μm incident energy of 93 kJ in a 3 nsec pulse. These experiments demonstrate the role of hohlraum geometry in LPI and demonstrate the need for systematic experiments for choosing the optimal configuration for ignition studies with indirect drive inertial confinement fusion.

A compact stilbene crystal neutron spectrometer for EAST D-D plasma neutron diagnostics

A new compact stilbene crystal neutron spectrometer has been investigated and applied in the neutron emission spectroscopy on the EAST tokamak. A new components analysis method is presented to study the anisotropic light output in the stilbene crystal detector. A Geant4 code was developed to simulate the neutron responses in the spectrometer. Based on both the optimal light output function and the fitted pulse height resolution function, a reliable neutron response matrix was obtained by Geant4 simulations and validated by 2.5 MeV and 14 MeV neutron measurements at a 4.5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator. The spectrometer was used to diagnose the ion temperature in plasma discharges with lower hybrid wave injection and ion cyclotron resonance heating on the EAST tokamak.

Neutron emission measurement at the HL-2A tokamak device with a liquid scintillation detector

Neutron emission measurement at the HL-2A tokamak device with a liquid scintillation detector is described. The detector was placed at a location with little structure material in the field of view, and equipped with a gain monitoring system which could provide the possibility to evaluate the gain variation as well as to correct for the detector response. Time trace of the neutron emissivity was obtained and it was consistent with the result of a standard (235)U fission chamber. During the plasma discharge the neutron yield could vary by about four orders of magnitude and the fluctuation of the detector gain was up to about 6%. Pulse height spectrum of the liquid scintillation detector was constructed and corrected with the aid of the gain monitoring system, and the correction was found to be essential for the assessment of the neutron energy spectrum. This successful measurement offered experience and confidence for the application of liquid scintillation detectors in the upcoming neutron camera system.

Recent progress and future prospects of high-energy peta-watt laser in LFRC, CAEP

The laser system with output energy larger than 150 Joules, output pulse width less than 1-ps has been finished in last year in Research Center of Laser Fusion (LFRC) at China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP). The front-end of the system can emit 4-mJ, 1053-nm femtosecond laser by optical parametric amplification based on supercontinuum white-light injection. Then the laser is stretched to chirped pulse with 2ns pulse duration and amplified to near 200 Joules by multi-stage phosphate Nd:glass amplifiers. Subsequent amplification in a chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) chain will result in a sometimes substantial lengthening of the output pulses owing to gain narrowing and uncompensated phase errors. The acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (AOPDF) [2] is used to modulate the amplitude and phase of ultrashort pulses in order to maintain the short pulse duration after amplification. The size of a single gratings is not enough for high energy pulse compression, Therefore we developed tiled-gratings technology. A single-pass tiled-gratings-compressor (TGC) [3] is used in this system. Real-time monitoring and on-line alignment system has been established to achieve coherent addition of the tiled gratings. Impact of vibration being eliminated to a least level, the tiled gratings can keep stable for a several hours.

Ion temperature measurements of indirect-drive implosions with the neutron time-of-flight detector on SG-III laser facility

The accuracy of the determination of the burn-averaged ion temperature of inertial confinement fusion implosions depends on the unfold process, including deconvolution and convolution methods, and the function, i.e., the detector response, used to fit the signals measured by neutron time-of-flight (nToF) detectors. The function given by Murphy et al. [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 68(1), 610-613 (1997)] has been widely used in Nova, Omega, and NIF. There are two components, i.e., fast and slow, and the contribution of scattered neutrons has not been dedicatedly considered. In this work, a new function, based on Murphys function has been employed to unfold nToF signals. The contribution of scattered neutrons is easily included by the convolution of a Gaussian response function and an exponential decay. The ion temperature is measured by nToF with the new function. Good agreement with the ion temperature determined by the deconvolution method has been achieved.

Backscatter spectra measurements of the two beams on the same cone on Shenguang-III laser facility

In laser driven hohlraums, laser beams on the same incident cone may have different beam and plasma conditions, causing beam-to-beam backscatter difference and subsequent azimuthal variations in the x-ray drive on the capsule. To elucidate the large variation of backscatter proportion from beam to beam in some gas-filled hohlraum shots on Shenguang-III, two 28.5° beams have been measured with the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) time-resolved spectra. A bifurcated fiber is used to sample two beams and then coupled to a spectrometer and streak camera combination to reduce the cost. The SRS spectra, characterized by a broad wavelength, were further corrected considering the temporal distortion and intensity modulation caused by components along the light path. This measurement will improve the understanding of the beam propagation inside the hohlraum and related laser plasma instabilities.

Multiple angle measurement and modeling of M-band x-ray fluxes from vacuum hohlraum

The energetics experiment of vacuum gold hohlraums is implemented on the Shenguang-II laser facility. The total and M-band x-ray fluxes from the laser entrance holes are measured by the flat response x-ray diodes which are set at multiple angles with respect to the axis of the hohlraums. The measured M-band fractions are from 5.72% to 7.71%, which present a specific angular distribution. Based on the fact that the M-band x-rays are mainly emitted from the under-dense high-temperature plasmas, a simplified model is developed to give a quantitative prediction of the intensity, temporal behavior, and angular distribution of the M-band x-ray flux. The results obtained with our model are in good agreement with the experimental data, showing that our model can be a useful tool for M-band x-ray investigation.