Studies of plastic-ablator compressibility for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion on OMEGA

The compression of planar plastic targets was studied with x-ray radiography in the range of laser intensities of I approximately 0.5 to 1.5x10(15) W/cm2 using square (low-compression) and shaped (high-compression) pulses. Two-dimensional simulations with the radiative hydrocode DRACO show good agre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2008-05, Vol.100 (18), p.185003-185003, Article 185003
Main Authors: Hu, S X, Smalyuk, V A, Goncharov, V N, Knauer, J P, Radha, P B, Igumenshchev, I V, Marozas, J A, Stoeckl, C, Yaakobi, B, Shvarts, D, Sangster, T C, McKenty, P W, Meyerhofer, D D, Skupsky, S, McCrory, R L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
COMPRESSIBILITY
COMPRESSION
DECAY INSTABILITY
ELECTRONS
ENTROPY
HARD X RADIATION
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
LASERS
SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
X-RAY RADIOGRAPHY
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Summary:The compression of planar plastic targets was studied with x-ray radiography in the range of laser intensities of I approximately 0.5 to 1.5x10(15) W/cm2 using square (low-compression) and shaped (high-compression) pulses. Two-dimensional simulations with the radiative hydrocode DRACO show good agreement with measurements at laser intensities up to I approximately 10(15) W/cm2. These results provide the first experimental evidence for low-entropy, adiabatic compression of plastic shells in the laser intensity regime relevant to direct-drive inertial confinement fusion. A density reduction near the end of the drive at a high intensity of I approximately 1.5x10(15) W/cm2 has been correlated with the hard x-ray signal caused by hot electrons from two-plasmon-decay instability.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.185003