Target Implosion Research Articles

Magneto-inertial fusion with laser compression of a magnetized spherical target

The paper is devoted to the principles of magneto-inertial fusion and laser-plasma methods of generation of a Megagauss field during spherical implosion of a magnetized target. A model based on a magnetic confinement system, namely, a cusp configuration with inertial compression of the target by a laser driver, is developed. The dynamics of plasma in a cusp compressed under the effect of laser beams is precalculated. Analytical and numerical estimates of the particle number and magnetic field intensity during magneto-inertial plasma compression are obtained. The problems of irradiation of a spherically closed volume by a high-energy laser pulse are discussed.

Fast ignition integrated experiments with Gekko and LFEX lasers

Based on the successful result of fast heating of a shell target with a cone for heating beam injection at Osaka University in 2002 using the PW laser (Kodama et al 2002 Nature 418 933), the FIREX-1 project was started in 2004. Its goal is to demonstrate fuel heating up to 5 keV using an upgraded heating laser beam. For this purpose, the LFEX laser, which can deliver an energy up to10 kJ in a 0.5–20 ps pulse at its full spec, has been constructed in addition to the Gekko-XII laser system at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University. It has been activated and became operational since 2009. Following the previous experiment with the PW laser, upgraded integrated experiments of fast ignition have been started using the LFEX laser with an energy up to 1 kJ in 2009 and 2 kJ in 2010 in a 1–5 ps 1.053 µm pulse. Experimental results including implosion of the shell target by Gekko-XII, heating of the imploded fuel core by LFEX laser injection, and increase of the neutron yield due to fast heating compared with no heating have been achieved. Results in the 2009 experiment indicated that the heating efficiency was 3–5%, much lower than the 20–30% expected from the previous 2002 data. It was attributed to the very hot electrons generated in a long scale length plasma in the cone preformed with a prepulse in the LFEX beam. The prepulse level was significantly reduced in the 2010 experiment to improve the heating efficiency. Also we have improved the plasma diagnostics significantly which enabled us to observe the plasma even in the hard x-ray harsh environment. In the 2010 experiment, we have observed neutron enhancement up to 3.5 × 107 with total heating energy of 300 J on the target, which is higher than the yield obtained in the 2009 experiment and the previous data in 2002. We found the estimated heating efficiency to be at a level of 10–20%. 5 keV heating is expected at the full output of the LFEX laser by controlling the heating efficiency.

Challenges Surrounding the Injection and Arrival of Targets at LIFE Fusion Chamber Center

IFE target designers must consider several engineering requirements in addition to the physics requirements for successful target implosion. These considerations include low target cost, high manufacturing throughput, the ability of the target to survive the injection into the fusion chamber and arrive in a condition and physical position consistent with proper laser-target interaction and ease of post-implosion debris removal. This article briefly describes these considerations for the Laser Inertial Fusion-based Energy (LIFE) targets currently being designed.

Measurements of core and compressed-shell temperature and density conditions in thick-wall target implosions at the OMEGA laser facility

A spectroscopic method is discussed to measure core and compressed-shell conditions in thick-wall plastic-shell implosions filled with deuterium and a tracer amount of argon. Simultaneous observation over a broad photon energy range of the argon line emission and the attenuation and self-emission effects of the compressed shell confining the core yields enough information to extract average temperature and density conditions in both core and compressed shell. The spectroscopic analysis also provides an estimate of the target areal density which is an important characteristic of inertial confinement fusion implosions.

Development of X-ray Thomson scattering for implosion target characterization

X-ray Thomson scattering from spherically imploding, direct-drive capsules is used to study the in-flight density, temperature, and ionization state at electron densities of up to ∼10 24 cm −3. We present scattering data from Be cone-in-shell targets with ∼2 × 10 6 photons in the scattered spectrum. These measurements display the ability for single-shot characterization of the shell conditions in capsule implosions. This is important for diagnosing inertial confinement fusion experiments that determine the likelihood of ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), LLNL. We will discuss the experimental geometry, or platform, and the outlook for further improvement of the signal-to-noise.

Neutron-induced nucleation inside bubble chambers using Freon 115 as the active medium

Neutron imaging is used in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments to measure the core symmetry of imploded targets. Liquid bubble chambers have the potential to obtain higher resolution images of the targets for a shorter source–target distance than typical scintillator arrays. Due to the fact that nucleation models used in gel detectors research cannot always give correct estimates for the neutron-induced bubble density inside a liquid bubble chamber, an improved theoretical model to describe the mechanism of bubble formation for Freon 115 as the active medium has been developed. It shows that the size of the critical radius for the nucleation process determines the mechanism of bubble formation and the sensitivity of the active medium to the 14.1-MeV incident neutrons resulting from ICF implosions. The bubble-growth mechanism is driven by the excitation of the medium electronic levels and not by electrons ejected from the medium's atoms as happens for the bubble chambers used to detect charged particles. The model accurately predicts the neutron-induced bubble density measured on OMEGA with both liquid bubble chambers and gel detectors.

Absolute measurements of x-ray backlighter sources at energies above 10 keV

Line emission and broadband x-ray sources with x-ray energies above 10 keV have been investigated using a range of calibrated x-ray detectors for use as x-ray backlighters in high energy density (HED) experiments. The conversion efficiency of short- and long-pulse driven Mo and Ag line-emission backlighters at 17 and 22 keV was measured to investigate the crossover region between short- and long-pulse conversion efficiency. It was found that significant 17 and 22 keV line emissions were observed using a 3 ω, 1 ns long-pulse drive for Mo and Ag targets and a comparison between the measured Mo x-ray spectrum and calculations using an atomic physics code suggests that the line emission is due to thermal emission from N-like Mo atoms. Electron temperatures derived from fits to the continuum region of the x-ray spectra agree well with the Thot scaling as 100×(Iλ2)1/3. The continuum emissions from empty and 1 atm Kr-filled imploded CH shell targets were also measured for the use as broadband backlighters.

The experimental plan for cryogenic layered target implosions on the National Ignition Facility—The inertial confinement approach to fusion

Ignition requires precisely controlled, high convergence implosions to assemble a dense shell of deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel with ρR>∼1 g/cm2 surrounding a 10 keV hot spot with ρR ∼ 0.3 g/cm2. A working definition of ignition has been a yield of ∼1 MJ. At this yield the α-particle energy deposited in the fuel would have been ∼200 kJ, which is already ∼10 × more than the kinetic energy of a typical implosion. The National Ignition Campaign includes low yield implosions with dudded fuel layers to study and optimize the hydrodynamic assembly of the fuel in a diagnostics rich environment. The fuel is a mixture of tritium-hydrogen-deuterium (THD) with a density equivalent to DT. The fraction of D can be adjusted to control the neutron yield. Yields of ∼1014−15 14 MeV (primary) neutrons are adequate to diagnose the hot spot as well as the dense fuel properties via down scattering of the primary neutrons. X-ray imaging diagnostics can function in this low yield environment providing additional information about the assembled fuel either by imaging the photons emitted by the hot central plasma, or by active probing of the dense shell by a separate high energy short pulse flash. The planned use of these targets and diagnostics to assess and optimize the assembly of the fuel and how this relates to the predicted performance of DT targets is described. It is found that a good predictor of DT target performance is the THD measurable parameter, Experimental Ignition Threshold Factor, ITFX ∼ Y × dsf 2.3, where Y is the measured neutron yield between 13 and 15 MeV, and dsf is the down scattered neutron fraction defined as the ratio of neutrons between 10 and 12 MeV and those between 13 and 15 MeV.

High-performance inertial confinement fusion target implosions on OMEGA

The Omega Laser Facility is used to study inertial confinement fusion (ICF) concepts. This paper describes progress in direct-drive central hot-spot (CHS) ICF, shock ignition (SI) and fast ignition (FI) since the 2008 IAEA FEC conference. CHS cryogenic deuterium–tritium (DT) target implosions on OMEGA have produced the highest DT areal densities yet measured in ICF implosions (∼300 mg cm−2). Integrated FI experiments have shown a significant increase in neutron yield caused by an appropriately timed high-intensity, high-energy laser pulse.

A Freon-filled bubble chamber for neutron detection in inertial confinement fusion experiments

Neutron imaging is one of the main methods used in inertial confinement fusion experiments to measure the core symmetry of target implosions. Previous studies have shown that bubble chambers have the potential to obtain higher resolution images of the targets for a shorter source-to-target distance than typical scintillator arrays. A bubble chamber for neutron imaging with Freon 115 as the active medium was designed and built for the OMEGA laser system. Bubbles resulting from spontaneous nucleation were recorded. Bubbles resulting from neutron-Freon interactions were observed at neutron yields of 10(13) emitted from deuterium-tritium target implosions on OMEGA. The measured column bubble density was too low for neutron imaging on OMEGA but agreed with the model of bubble formation. The recorded data suggest that neutron bubble detectors are a promising technology for the higher neutron yields expected at National Ignition Facility.

Proton radiography in plasma

Abstract Generation of high intensity and well collimated multi-energetic proton beams from laser–matter interaction extends the possibility to use protons as a diagnostic tool to image imploding target in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments. Due to the very large mass densities reached during implosion, protons traveling through the target undergo a very large number of collisions. Therefore the analysis of experimentally obtained proton images requires care and accurate numerical simulations using both hydrodynamic and Monte Carlo codes. The impact of multiple scattering needs to be carefully considered by taking into account the exact stopping power for dense matter and for the underdense plasma corona. In our paper, density, temperature and ionization degree profiles of the imploding target are obtained by 2D hydrodynamic simulations performed using CHIC code. Proton radiography images are simulated using the Monte Carlo code (MCNPX; adapted to correctly describe multiple scattering and plasma stopping power) in order to reconstruct the complete hydrodynamic history of the imploding target. Finally we develop a simple analytical model to study the performance of proton radiography as a function of initial experimental parameters, and identify two different regimes for proton radiography in ICF.

Proton radiography of laser-driven imploding target in cylindrical geometry

An experiment was done at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Vulcan laser petawatt laser) to study fast electron propagation in cylindrically compressed targets, a subject of interest for fast ignition. This was performed in the framework of the experimental road map of HiPER (the European high power laser energy research facility project). In the experiment, protons accelerated by a picosecond-laser pulse were used to radiograph a 220 μm diameter cylinder (20 μm wall, filled with low density foam), imploded with ∼200 J of green laser light in four symmetrically incident beams of pulse length 1 ns. Point projection proton backlighting was used to get the compression history and the stagnation time. Results are also compared to those from hard x-ray radiography. Detailed comparison with two-dimensional numerical hydrosimulations has been done using a Monte Carlo code adapted to describe multiple scattering and plasma effects. Finally we develop a simple analytical model to estimate the performance of prot...

Design and assembly of the neutron imaging lens for the National Ignition Facility

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world’s largest and most powerful laser system for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and experiments studying high energy density science. Neutron imaging of ICF targets provides a powerful tool for understanding the implosion conditions of deuterium and tritium (DT) filled targets. The primary purpose of imaging ICF targets at NIF is to determine the symmetry of the fuel in an imploded ICF target. The image data are then combined with other nuclear information to gain insight into the drive laser and radiation conditions required to drive the targets to ignition.

Target debris collection studies for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments

At the recently completed National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the initial set of diagnostics to be deployed are focused on measuring neutrons and γ's generated by d(t,n)α reactions in the imploded capsule. Although valuable for understanding pre-ignition experiments, this abbreviated diagnostic suite provides an incomplete picture of the plasma conditions obtained. Prompt radiochemical techniques, based on induced neutron and charged particle reactions within the imploded target, provide a novel and interesting new perspective. To enable these techniques requires the collection and assay of activated target material. In Nov. 2008, experiments were performed using the Omega Laser at the University of Rochester to study the efficiency of collecting debris from directly driven targets. Results from these experiments indicate that target debris was successfully collected, and the debris thermalization and transport scheme enhanced the debris collection up to 347% over direct collection.

Controlling dynamics of imploded core plasma for fast ignition

In the Fast ignition, formation of highly compressed core plasma is one of critical issue. In this work, the effect hydrodynamic instability in cone-guided shell implosion is studied. Two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations are carried out where realistic seeds of Rayleigh-Taylor instability are imposed. Preliminary results suggest that the instability reduces implosion performance, such as implosion velocity, areal density, and maximum density. In perturbed target implosion, the break-up time of the tip of the cone is earlier than that of ideal unperturbed target implosion case. This is crucial matter for the Fast ignition because the pass for the heating laser is filled with plasma before the shot of heating laser. A sophisticated implosion design of stable and low in-flight aspect ratio is necessary for cone-guided shell implosion.

Design of High-Neutron-Yield, Polar-drive targets for diagnostic activation experiments on the NIF

Polar-drive (PD) target implosions have been designed for neutron diagnostic development on the NIF. These experiments use thin, room-temperature glass shells filled with low pressures of DT. Initial target implosions on the NIF will produce DT yields in the range of a few 1014 neutrons. The predicted yields are consistent with earlier data (1014 neutrons at 30 kJ) and recent PD scoping experiments performed on OMEGA. The experiments will use existing x-ray-drive phase plates with judicious repointing and defocusing to drive the implosions as uniformly as possible. These implosions have been modeled with three codes: LILAC, to optimize the 1-D design; SAGE, to optimize the pointing uniformity; and DRACO, to predict the yield from 2-D implosion simulations. Current simulation results indicate that the required yields will be obtained using up to 200-kJ UV light formed into a 1500-ps Gaussian pulse. Large-diameter glass shells (∼1500-μm OD) are under development and fabrication at General Atomics. As tritium and environmental conditions evolve, similar target designs, with larger diameters and higher laser energies, are expected to produce thermonuclear yields approaching 1016 neutrons.

Multiterawatt Ti:Sapphire/KrF laser GARPUN-MTW as a test bench facility for verification of combined amplification of nanosecond and subpicosecond pulses

The possibility of the same large-aperture KrF laser driver to amplify simultaneously both nanosecond pulses for thermonuclear target implosion and picosecond ones for fuel ignition is discussed relative to KrF-based Fusion Test Facility. In this way experiments were performed at hybrid Ti:Sapphire/KrF GARPUN-MTW facility on amplification of subpicosecond pulses. 2-TW, 330-fs pulses were produced with beam divergence 20 μrad in direct double-pass amplification scheme. Peak power as high as 30–40 TW can be achieved in 50-fs pulses, being combined with long pulses (of a few ns to 100 ns) of ∼1 GW power.

Compressing magnetic fields with high-energy lasers

Laser-driven magnetic-field compression producing a magnetic field of tens of megaGauss is reported for the first time. A shock wave formed during the implosion of a cylindrical target traps an initial (seed) magnetic field that is amplified via conservation of magnetic flux. Such large fields are expected to magnetize the electrons in the hot, central plasma, leading to a cyclotron frequency exceeding the collision frequency. The Omega Laser Facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] was used to implode cylindrical CH targets filled with deuterium gas and seeded with an external field (>50 kG) from a magnetic pulse generator. This seed field is trapped and rapidly compressed by the imploding shell, minimizing the effect of resistive flux diffusion. The compressed field was probed via proton deflectrometry using 14.7 MeV protons from the D+H3e fusion reaction emitted by an imploding glass microballoon. Line-averaged magnetic fields of the imploded core were measured to between 30 and 40 MG. Experimental data were analyzed with both a magnetohydrodynamic version of the one-dimensional hydrocode LILAC [J. Delettrez et al., Phys. Rev. A 36, 3926 (1987); N. W. Jang et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 51, 144 (2006)] and the particle propagation code GEANT4 [S. Agostinelli et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 506, 250 (2003)].

Code OK3 – An upgraded version of OK2 with beam wobbling function

For computer simulations on heavy ion beam (HIB) irradiation onto a target with an arbitrary shape and structure in heavy ion fusion (HIF), the code OK2 was developed and presented in Computer Physics Communications 161 (2004). Code OK3 is an upgrade of OK2 including an important capability of wobbling beam illumination. The wobbling beam introduces a unique possibility for a smooth mechanism of inertial fusion target implosion, so that sufficient fusion energy is released to construct a fusion reactor in future. New version program summary Program title: OK3 Catalogue identifier: ADST_v3_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADST_v3_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 221 517 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2 471 015 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++ Computer: PC (Pentium 4, 1 GHz or more recommended) Operating system: Windows or UNIX RAM: 2048 MBytes Classification: 19.7 Catalogue identifier of previous version: ADST_v2_0 Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 161 (2004) 143 Does the new version supersede the previous version?: Yes Nature of problem: In heavy ion fusion (HIF), ion cancer therapy, material processing, etc., a precise beam energy deposition is essentially important [1]. Codes OK1 and OK2 have been developed to simulate the heavy ion beam energy deposition in three-dimensional arbitrary shaped targets [2, 3]. Wobbling beam illumination is important to smooth the beam energy deposition nonuniformity in HIF, so that a uniform target implosion is realized and a sufficient fusion output energy is released. Solution method: OK3 code works on the base of OK1 and OK2 [2, 3]. The code simulates a multi-beam illumination on a target with arbitrary shape and structure, including beam wobbling function. Reasons for new version: The code OK3 is based on OK2 [3] and uses the same algorithm with some improvements, the most important one is the beam wobbling function. Summary of revisions: 1. In the code OK3, beams are subdivided on many bunches. The displacement of each bunch center from the initial beam direction is calculated. 2. Code OK3 allows the beamlet number to vary from bunch to bunch. That reduces the calculation error especially in case of very complicated mesh structure with big internal holes. 3. The target temperature rises during the time of energy deposition. 4. Some procedures are improved to perform faster. 5. The energy conservation is checked up on each step of calculation process and corrected if necessary. New procedures included in OK3 1. Procedure BeamCenterRot( ) rotates the beam axis around the impinging direction of each beam. 2. Procedure BeamletRot( ) rotates the beamlet axes that belong to each beam. 3. Procedure Rotation( ) sets the coordinates of rotated beams and beamlets in chamber and pellet systems. 4. Procedure BeamletOut( ) calculates the lost energy of ions that have not impinged on the target. 5. Procedure TargetT( ) sets the temperature of the target layer of energy deposition during the irradiation process. 6. Procedure ECL( ) checks up the energy conservation law at each step of the energy deposition process. 7. Procedure ECLt( ) performs the final check up of the energy conservation law at the end of deposition process. Modified procedures in OK3 1. Procedure InitBeam( ): This procedure initializes the beam radius and coefficients A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 for Gauss distributed beams [2]. It is enlarged in OK3 and can set beams with radii from 1 to 20 mm. 2. Procedure kBunch( ) is modified to allow beamlet number variation from bunch to bunch during the deposition. 3. Procedure ijkSp( ) and procedure Hole( ) are modified to perform faster. 4. Procedure Espl( ) and procedure ChechE( ) are modified to increase the calculation accuracy. 5. Procedure SD( ) calculates the total relative root-mean-square (RMS) deviation and the total relative peak-to-valley (PTV) deviation in energy deposition non-uniformity. This procedure is not included in code OK2 because of its limited applications (for spherical targets only). It is taken from code OK1 and modified to perform with code OK3. Running time: The execution time depends on the pellet mesh number and the number of beams in the simulated illumination as well as on the beam characteristics (beam radius on the pellet surface, beam subdivision, projectile particle energy and so on). In almost all of the practical running tests performed, the typical running time for one beam deposition is about 30 s on a PC with a CPU of Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz.

Angular distribution measurement and simulation of M band X-ray from the half- hohlraum

Measurement of radiation field near a implosion pellet M band X-ray is a important area in ICF research. On the SG Ⅱ laser facility, M band X-ray from Au plasma was measured in half-hohlraum radiation from the end. The experimental set-up and typical result were given. And weve also used the view-factor program to simulate this experiment. The results indicate that angular distribution of M band X-ray from the end of half-hohlraum doesnt assume linear relationship with the cosine of eradiating angle. The results are useful for the research of implosion experiment and target design.