Two-dimensional simulations of the neutron yield in cryogenic deuterium-tritium implosions on OMEGA

Abstract

Maximizing the neutron yield to obtain energy gain is the ultimate goal for inertial confinement fusion. Nonuniformities seeded by target and laser perturbations can disrupt neutron production via the Rayleigh–Taylor instability growth. To understand the effects of perturbations on the neutron yield of cryogenic DT implosions on the Omega Laser Facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)], two-dimensional DRACO [P. B. Radha et al., Phys. Plasmas 12, 056307 (2005)] simulations have been performed to systematically investigate each perturbation source and their combined effects on the neutron-yield performance. Two sources of nonuniformity accounted for the neutron-yield reduction in DRACO simulations: target offset from the target chamber center and laser imprinting. The integrated simulations for individual shots reproduce the experimental yield-over-clean (YOC) ratio within a factor of 2 or better. The simulated neutron-averaged ion temperatures ⟨Ti⟩ is only about 10%–15% higher than measurements. By defining the temperature-over-clean, its relationship to YOC provides an indication of how much the hot-spot volume and density are perturbed with respect to the uniform situation. Typically, the YOC in OMEGA experiments is of the order of ∼5%. The simulation results suggest that YOC can be increased to the ignition hydroequivalent level of 15%–20% (with ⟨ρR⟩=200–300 mg/cm2) by maintaining a target offset of less than 10 μm and employing beam smoothing by spectral dispersion.