Low-mode Asymmetries Research Articles

Onset of Hydrodynamic Mix in High-Velocity, Highly Compressed Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions

Deuterium-tritium inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments on the National Ignition Facility have demonstrated yields ranging from 0.8 to 7×10(14), and record fuel areal densities of 0.7 to 1.3 g/cm2. These implosions use hohlraums irradiated with shaped laser pulses of 1.5-1.9 MJ energy. The laser peak power and duration at peak power were varied, as were the capsule ablator dopant concentrations and shell thicknesses. We quantify the level of hydrodynamic instability mix of the ablator into the hot spot from the measured elevated absolute x-ray emission of the hot spot. We observe that DT neutron yield and ion temperature decrease abruptly as the hot spot mix mass increases above several hundred ng. The comparison with radiation-hydrodynamic modeling indicates that low mode asymmetries and increased ablator surface perturbations may be responsible for the current performance.

Numerical Simulation of 2-D Radiation-Drive Ignition Implosion Process

A Lagrangian compatible radiation hydrodynamic algorithm and the nuclear dynamics computing module are developed and implemented in the LARED Integration code, which is a radiation hydrodynamic code based on the 2-D cylindrical coordinates for the numerical simulation of the indirect-drive Inertial Confined Fusion. A number of 1-D and 2-D ignition implosion numerical simulations by using the improved LARED Integration code (ILARED) are presented which show that the 1-D numerical results are consistent with those computed by the 1-D radiation hydrodynamic code RDMG, while the simulation results of the 2-D low-mode radiative asymmetry and hydrodynamic instability growth, according to the physical analysis and anticipation, are satisfactory. The capsules driven by the sources from SGII experiments are also simulated by ILARED, and the fuel shapes agree well with the experimental results. The numerical simulations demonstrate that ILARED can be used in the simulation of the 1-D and 2-D ignition capsule implosion using the multi-group diffusion model for radiation.

Development of a polar direct-drive platform for studying inertial confinement fusion implosion mix on the National Ignition Facility

Experiments were performed to develop a platform for the simultaneous measurement of mix and its effects on fusion burn. Two polar direct drive implosions of all-plastic capsules were conducted for the first time on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). To measure implosion trajectory and symmetry, area image backlighting of these capsules was also employed for the first time on NIF, an advance over previous 1-D slit imaging experiments, providing detailed symmetry data of the capsules as they imploded. The implosion trajectory and low-mode asymmetry seen in the resultant radiographs agreed with pre-shot predictions even though the 700 kJ drive energy produced laser beam intensities exceeding laser-plasma instability thresholds. Post-shot simulations indicate that the capsule yield was reduced by a factor of two compared to pre-shot predictions owing to as-shot laser drive asymmetries. The pre-shot predictions of bang time agreed within 200 ps with the experimental results. The second shot incorporated a narrow groove encircling the equator of the capsule. A predicted yield reduction factor of three was not observed.

Detailed implosion modeling of deuterium-tritium layered experiments on the National Ignition Facility

More than two dozen inertial confinement fusion ignition experiments with cryogenic deuterium-tritium layers have now been performed on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G. H. Miller et al., Opt. Eng. 443, 2841 (2004)]. Each of these yields a wealth of data including neutron yield, neutron down-scatter fraction, burn-averaged ion temperature, x-ray image shape and size, primary and down-scattered neutron image shape and size, etc. Compared to 2-D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations modeling both the hohlraum and the capsule implosion, however, the measured capsule yield is usually lower by a factor of 5 to 10, and the ion temperature varies from simulations, while most other observables are well matched between experiment and simulation. In an effort to understand this discrepancy, we perform detailed post-shot simulations of a subset of NIF implosion experiments. Using two-dimensional HYDRA simulations [M. M. Marinak, et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 2275 (2001).] of the capsule only, these simulations represent as accurately as possible the conditions of a given experiment, including the as-shot capsule metrology, capsule surface roughness, and ice layer defects as seeds for the growth of hydrodynamic instabilities. The radiation drive used in these capsule-only simulations can be tuned to reproduce quite well the measured implosion timing, kinematics, and low-mode asymmetry. In order to simulate the experiments as accurately as possible, a limited number of fully three-dimensional implosion simulations are also being performed. Despite detailed efforts to incorporate all of the effects known and believed to be important in determining implosion performance, substantial yield discrepancies remain between experiment and simulation. Some possible alternate scenarios and effects that could resolve this discrepancy are discussed.

Diagnosing implosion performance at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) by means of neutron spectrometry

The neutron spectrum from a cryogenically layered deuterium–tritium (dt) implosion at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) provides essential information about the implosion performance. From the measured primary-neutron spectrum (13–15 MeV), yield (Yn) and hot-spot ion temperature (Ti) are determined. From the scattered neutron yield (10–12 MeV) relative to Yn, the down-scatter ratio, and the fuel areal density (ρR) are determined. These implosion parameters have been diagnosed to an unprecedented accuracy with a suite of neutron-time-of-flight spectrometers and a magnetic recoil spectrometer implemented in various locations around the NIF target chamber. This provides good implosion coverage and excellent measurement complementarity required for reliable measurements of Yn, Ti and ρR, in addition to ρR asymmetries. The data indicate that the implosion performance, characterized by the experimental ignition threshold factor, has improved almost two orders of magnitude since the first shot taken in September 2010. ρR values greater than 1 g cm−2 are readily achieved. Three-dimensional semi-analytical modelling and numerical simulations of the neutron-spectrometry data, as well as other data for the hot spot and main fuel, indicate that a maximum hot-spot pressure of ∼150 Gbar has been obtained, which is almost a factor of two from the conditions required for ignition according to simulations. Observed Yn are also 3–10 times lower than predicted. The conjecture is that the observed pressure and Yn deficits are partly explained by substantial low-mode ρR asymmetries, which may cause inefficient conversion of shell kinetic energy to hot-spot thermal energy at stagnation.

Symmetry tuning with megajoule laser pulses at the National Ignition Facility

Experiments conducted at the National Ignition Facility using shaped laser pulses with more than 1 MJ of energy have demonstrated the ability to control the implosion symmetry under ignition conditions. To achieve thermonuclear ignition, the low mode asymmetries must be small to minimize the size of the hotspot. The symmetry tuning experiments use symmetry capsules, “symcaps”, which replace the DT fuel with an equivalent mass of CH to emulate the hydrodynamic behavior of an ignition capsule. The x-ray self-emission signature from gas inside the capsule during the peak compression correlates with the surrounding hotspot shape. By tuning the shape of the self-emission, the capsule implosion symmetry can be made to be “round.” In the experimental results presented here, we utilized crossbeam energy transfer [S. H. Glenzer, et al., Science 327, 1228 (2010)] to change the ratio of the inner to outer cone power inside the hohlraum targets on the NIF. Variations in the ratio of the inner cone to outer cone power affect the radiation pattern incident on the capsule modifying the implosion symmetry.

A high-resolution integrated model of the National Ignition Campaign cryogenic layered experiments

A detailed simulation-based model of the June 2011 National Ignition Campaign cryogenic DT experiments is presented. The model is based on integrated hohlraum-capsule simulations that utilize the best available models for the hohlraum wall, ablator, and DT equations of state and opacities. The calculated radiation drive was adjusted by changing the input laser power to match the experimentally measured shock speeds, shock merger times, peak implosion velocity, and bangtime. The crossbeam energy transfer model was tuned to match the measured time-dependent symmetry. Mid-mode mix was included by directly modeling the ablator and ice surface perturbations up to mode 60. Simulated experimental values were extracted from the simulation and compared against the experiment. Although by design the model is able to reproduce the 1D in-flight implosion parameters and low-mode asymmetries, it is not able to accurately predict the measured and inferred stagnation properties and levels of mix. In particular, the measured yields were 15%–40% of the calculated yields, and the inferred stagnation pressure is about 3 times lower than simulated.

2D analysis of direct-drive shock-ignited HiPER-like target implosions with the full laser megajoule

AbstractWe present a 2D analysis of direct-drive shock ignition for the laser Megajoule. First, a target design is chosen in the HiPER-like target family generated by scale up and down of the original HiPER target. A first analysis is done considering the 1D fuel assembly and 2D shock ignition by means of the ring at polar angle of 33°2. The intensity profile is top-hat and calculations are done for several different radii. It is shown that larger the radius, lower the minimum spike power is. In addition, the intensity in each quad can stay below 4 × 1014 W/cm2 and is considered non crucial for parametric instabilities such as two plasmons. A 2D analysis of the fuel assembly is done in a second step by considering the two rings located at 49° and 59°5 and their symmetric by the equatorial plane symmetry. It is shown that low mode asymmetries are important at the stagnation and can significantly affect the areal density obtained. Finally, full 2D calculations of shock ignition is done, using all the beams of the LMJ and show that the spike power needed for ignition and gain is increased by a factor greater than 3 regarding the power needed in perfectly isotropic fuel assembly. This increase is mainly due to high level low mode asymmetries generated during fuel assembly.

Highly birefringent low-mode-asymmetry microstructured optical fibres

A novel birefringent microstructured fibre (BMF) design is proposed, and its birefringence and dispersion characteristics are analysed using the finite element method. The results indicate that the proposed BMF design ensures high birefringence (∼5×10-3) at a low mode asymmetry. At a certain core ellipticity, the BMF configurations considered may have equal mode field sizes along two orthogonal axes.

Simulations of high-gain shock-ignited inertial-confinement-fusion implosions using less than 1 MJ of direct KrF-laser energy

In this paper, we report on recent numerical simulations of inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) implosions using the FAST radiation hydrocode at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Our study focuses on three classes of shock-ignited target designs utilizing less than 1 MJ of direct, krypton-fluoride (KrF) laser energy, which was “zoomed” to maximize the coupling efficiency. In the shock-ignition approach [R. Betti, C.D. Zhou, K.S. Anderson, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (2007) 155001], a moderate-intensity, compressive laser pulse is followed by a short-duration high-intensity spike that launches a spherically-convergent shock wave to ignite a thick shell of compressed fuel. Such an arrangement appears to offer several significant advantages, including a low ignition threshold, high gain, and less susceptibility to the deleterious effects of hydrodynamic and laser-plasma instabilities. According to one-dimensional simulations, fusion gains over 200 can be achieved with shock-ignited targets using less than 750 kJ of laser energy. This represents a significant improvement in performance over conventional centrally-ignited designs. To examine the stability of these targets, several two-dimensional simulations were also performed that incorporated realistic perturbation sources such as laser imprinting and roughness spectra for inner/outer pellet surfaces. Although the simulations indicate that appreciable low-mode distortion of the fuel shell can occur at late time as a result of these perturbations, high gains are still achieved in many cases owing to the low in-flight aspect ratios of shock-ignited targets. We should remark, though, that the high convergence ratios of these same designs suggest that other sources of low-mode asymmetries, which were not considered in this study (e.g., beam misalignment and energy-balance errors), may be important in determining overall pellet stability and performance. We discuss these issues, as well as other salient design considerations for shock-ignited ICF targets.

Stellar explosions, instabilities, and turbulence

It has become very clear that the evolution of structure during supernovae is centrally dependent on the pre-existing structure in the star. Modeling of the pre-existing structure has advanced significantly, leading to improved understanding and to a physically based assessment of the structure that will be present when a star explodes. It remains an open question whether low-mode asymmetries in the explosion process can produce the observed effects or whether the explosion mechanism somehow produces jets of material. In any event, the workhorse processes that produce structure in an exploding star are blast-wave driven instabilities. Laboratory experiments have explored these blast-wave-driven instabilities and specifically their dependence on initial conditions. Theoretical work has shown that the relative importance of Richtmyer–Meshkov and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities varies with the initial conditions and does so in ways that can make sense of a range of astrophysical observations.

Shock ignition: an alternative scheme for HiPER

Two main paths are now under investigation that aim at thermonuclear ignition of hydrogen isotopes using lasers: central hot spot self-ignition and externally driven fast ignition of preassembled fuel. A third, intermediate, scheme is shock ignition, which combines the simplicity of self-ignition capsules to the hydrodynamic robustness of the fast ignition fuel assembly. This study addresses the potential of shock ignition for the HiPER project and provides a preliminary assessment of possible detrimental effects. Monodimensional simulations are performed to study the robustness of the ignition scheme in terms of shock launching time and laser power. Bidimensional simulations address the sensitivity of shock ignition to irradiation nonuniformity and to low mode asymmetries of the fuel assembly.

Diagnosing ignition with DT reaction history

A full range DT reaction history of an ignition capsule, from 10(9) to 10(20) neutronsns, offers the opportunity to diagnose fuel conditions hundreds of picoseconds before and during burn. The burn history begins with a sharp rise when the first shock reaches the center of the capsule. The level of this jump reflects the combined shock strength and the adiabat of DT fuel. Changes to the four laser pulses driving the capsule implosion which are large enough to degrade the yield make measurable changes to the reaction history. Low mode asymmetries grow during convergence but change the reaction history during the final approximately 100 ps. High mode asymmetry or turbulence mixing affects only the reaction history within approximately 50 ps of peak burn rate. A capsule with a tritium fuel layer containing a small amount of deuterium (approximately 1%) creates a reaction history similar to the ignition capsule, but without the final ignition burn. A combination of gas Cerenkov detectors and the neutron temporal diagnostic could be capable of diagnosing the full history of ignition and tritium rich capsules.

High-gain direct-drive target design for the Laser Mégajoule

In the context of the French Laser-Mégajoule fusion-research programme, a direct-drive target design is developed. It is based on the use of a CH-foam ablator filled with cryogenic deuterium–tritium. One-dimensional optimization leads to a potential gain of 60 with a 1.5 MJ laser. The hydrodynamic stability of the implosion is investigated at the ablation front and the hot-spot surface by means of modelling and two-dimensional simulations. The effect of irradiation non-uniformities on low-mode (time-dependent) implosion asymmetries is studied by two-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations with three-dimensional laser-light raytracing. The effect of beam focal shapes on hot spot low-mode asymmetries is also addressed.

Design of a conic irradiation system for laser fusion

A practical method is presented to substantially simplify the design of beam configuration for an arbitrary number of laser beams, where the beam axes pointing at the target center are arranged on co-axial cones. Low-mode asymmetries can be smeared out automatically by optimizing both the polar angle and the energy assigned on each cone.

Three-dimensional simulations of Nova high growth factor capsule implosion experiments

Capsule implosion experiments carried out on the Nova laser [E. M. Campbell et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 57, 2101 (1986)] are simulated with the three-dimensional HYDRA radiation hydrodynamics code [NTIS Document No. DE-96004569 (M. M. Marinak et al. in UCRL-LR-105821-95-3)]. Simulations of ordered, near single mode perturbations indicate that structures which evolve into round spikes can penetrate farthest into the hot spot. Bubble-shaped perturbations can burn through the capsule shell fastest, in which case they cause even more damage. A simulation of a capsule with a multimode perturbation of moderate amplitude shows spike amplitudes evolving in good agreement with a saturation model during the deceleration phase. The presence of sizable low mode asymmetry, caused either by drive asymmetry or perturbations in the capsule shell, can dramatically affect the manner in which spikes approach the center of the hot spot. Three-dimensional coupling between the low mode shell perturbations intrinsic to Nova capsules and the drive asymmetry is found to be important, bringing the simulated neutron yields into closer agreement with the experimental values.

Recent progress of implosion experiments with uniformity-improved GEKKO XII laser facility at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University

The irradiation uniformity of the GEKKO XII laser [C. Yamanaka et al., IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-17 1639 (1981)] has been improved by using partially coherent light with angular spectral dispersion and by improving power balance among the beams. Implosion experiments with the uniformity-improved GEKKO XII have been carried out in order to demonstrate stable formation of the hot spark. The isentrope of the compressed pellet shell is controlled by adding a prepulse to enhance the ablative stabilization of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. The implosion dynamics has been investigated by x-ray imaging and neutron diagnostics. The experimental results are compared with the mix model prediction based on the one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation. The degradation of neutron yield is attributed to the low-mode asymmetry. Finally, recent results of planer target experiments on the ablative stabilization of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability are also presented. The observed linear growth rate was about 50% of the classical growth rate and was lower than that of the theoretical prediction, based on the Takabe formula combined with the one-dimensional simulation.