92 research outputs found
Low Fuel Convergence Path to Direct-Drive Fusion Ignition
A new class of inertial fusion capsules is presented that combines multishell targets with laser direct drive at low intensity (2.8Ă10ÂčâŽââW/cmÂČ) to achieve robust ignition. The targets consist of three concentric, heavy, metal shells, enclosing a volume of tens of ÎŒg of liquid deuterium-tritium fuel. Ignition is designed to occur well âupstreamâ from stagnation, with minimal pusher deceleration to mitigate interface Rayleigh-Taylor growth. Laser intensities below thresholds for laser plasma instability and cross beam energy transfer facilitate high hydrodynamic efficiency (âŒ10%)
Assessment of ion kinetic effects in shock-driven inertial confinement fusion implosions using fusion burn imaging
The significance and nature of ion kinetic effects in D3He-filled, shock-driven inertial confinement
fusion implosions are assessed through measurements of fusion burn profiles. Over this series of
experiments, the ratio of ion-ion mean free path to minimum shell radius (the Knudsen number,
NK) was varied from 0.3 to 9 in order to probe hydrodynamic-like to strongly kinetic plasma
conditions; as the Knudsen number increased, hydrodynamic models increasingly failed to match
measured yields, while an empirically-tuned, first-step model of ion kinetic effects better captured
the observed yield trends [Rosenberg et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 185001 (2014)]. Here, spatially
resolved measurements of the fusion burn are used to examine kinetic ion transport effects in
greater detail, adding an additional dimension of understanding that goes beyond zero-dimensional
integrated quantities to one-dimensional profiles. In agreement with the previous findings, a comparison
of measured and simulated burn profiles shows that models including ion transport effects
are able to better match the experimental results. In implosions characterized by large Knudsen
numbers (NK3), the fusion burn profiles predicted by hydrodynamics simulations that exclude
ion mean free path effects are peaked far from the origin, in stark disagreement with the experimentally
observed profiles, which are centrally peaked. In contrast, a hydrodynamics simulation that
includes a model of ion diffusion is able to qualitatively match the measured profile shapes.
Therefore, ion diffusion or diffusion-like processes are identified as a plausible explanation of the
observed trends, though further refinement of the models is needed for a more complete and
quantitative understanding of ion kinetic effects
Exploration of the Transition from the Hydrodynamiclike to the Strongly Kinetic Regime in Shock-Driven Implosions
Clear evidence of the transition from hydrodynamiclike to strongly kinetic shock-driven implosions is, for the first time, revealed and quantitatively assessed. Implosions with a range of initial equimolar D[superscript 3]He gas densities show that as the density is decreased, hydrodynamic simulations strongly diverge from and increasingly overpredict the observed nuclear yields, from a factor of âŒ2 at 3.1ââmg/cm[superscript 3] to a factor of 100 at 0.14ââmg/cm[superscript 3]. (The corresponding Knudsen number, the ratio of ion mean-free path to minimum shell radius, varied from 0.3 to 9; similarly, the ratio of fusion burn duration to ion diffusion time, another figure of merit of kinetic effects, varied from 0.3 to 14.) This result is shown to be unrelated to the effects of hydrodynamic mix. As a first step to garner insight into this transition, a reduced ion kinetic (RIK) model that includes gradient-diffusion and loss-term approximations to several transport processes was implemented within the framework of a one-dimensional radiation-transport code. After empirical calibration, the RIK simulations reproduce the observed yield trends, largely as a result of ion diffusion and the depletion of the reacting tail ions.United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-NA0001857)United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-FC52-08NA28752)University of Rochester. Fusion Science Center (5-24431)National Laser Userâs Facility (DE-NA0002035)University of Rochester. Laboratory for Laser Energetics (415935-G)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (B597367
Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment
For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37Â MJ of fusion for 1.92Â MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion
Exploring modern alternatives to the Whittaker-Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem in THz Spectroscopy
- âŠ