Semi-hydro-equivalent design and performance extrapolation between 100 kJ-scale and NIF-scale indirect drive implosion

Extrapolation of implosion performance between different laser energy scales is investigated for indirect drive through a semi-hydroequivalent design.Since radiation transport is non-hydro-equivalent,the peak radiation temperature of the hohlraum and the ablation velocity of the capsule ablator are not scale-invariant when the sizes of the hohlraum and the capsule are scale-varied.A semi-hydro-equivalent design method that keeps the implosion velocity V_(i),adiabat α_(F),and P_(L)/R_(hc)^(2) (where P_(L) is the laser power and R_(hc) is the hohlraum and capsule scale length)scale-invariant,is proposed to create hydrodynamically similar implosions.The semi-hydro-equivalent design and the scaled implosion performance are investigated for the 100 kJ Laser Facility(100 kJ-scale)and the National Ignition Facility(NIF-scale)with about 2 MJ laser energy.It is found that the one-dimensional implosion performance is approximately hydro-equivalent when V_(i) and α_(F) are kept the same.Owing to the non-hydro-equivalent radiation transport,the yield-over-clean without α-particle heating(YOC_(noα))is slightly lower at 100 kJ-scale than at NIF-scale for the same scaled radiation asymmetry or the same initial perturbation of the hydrodynamic instability.The overall scaled two-dimensional implosion performance is slightly lower at 100 kJ-scale.The general Lawson criterion factor scales asχ_(noα) ^(2D)∼S^(1.06±0.04)(where S is the scale-variation factor)for the semi-hydro-equivalent implosion design with a moderate YOC_(noα).Our study indicates that χ_(noα)≈0.379 is the minimum requirement for the 100 kJ-scale implosion to demonstrate the ability to achieve marginal ignition at NIF-scale.

Recent research progress of laser plasma interactions in Shenguang laser facilities

Wereport experimental research on laser plasma interaction(LPI)conducted in Shenguang laser facilities during the past ten years.The research generally consists of three phases:(1)developing platforms for LPI research in mm-scale plasma with limited drive energy,where both gasbag and gas-filled hohlraum targets are tested;(2)studying the effects of beam-smoothing techniques,such as continuous phase plate and polarization smoothing,on the suppression of LPI;and(3)exploring the factors affecting LPI in integrated implosion experiments,which include the laser intensity,gas-fill pressure,size of the laser-entrance hole,and interplay between different beam cones.Results obtained in each phase will be presented and discussed in detail.

Effects of mode coupling between low-mode radiation flux asymmetry and intermediate-mode ablator roughness on ignition capsule implosions

The low-mode shell asymmetry and high-mode hot spot mixing appear to be the main reasons for the performance degradation of the National Ignition Facility(NIF)implosion experiments.The effects of the mode coupling between low-mode P2 radiation flux asymmetry and intermediate-mode L=24 capsule roughness on the implosion performance of ignition capsule are investigated by two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations.It is shown that the amplitudes of new modes generated by the mode coupling are in good agreement with the second-order mode coupling equation during the acceleration phase.The later flow field not only shows large areal density P2 asymmetry in the main fuel,but also generates large-amplitude spikes and bubbles.In the deceleration phase,the increasing mode coupling generates more new modes,and the perturbation spectrum on the hot spot boundary is mainly from the strong mode interactions rather than the initial perturbation conditions.The combination of the low-mode and high-mode perturbations breaks up the capsule shell,resulting in a significant reduction of the hot spot temperature and implosion performance.

Determination of laser entrance hole size for ignition-scale octahedral spherical hohlraums

A recently proposed octahedral spherical hohlraum with six laser entrance holes(LEHs)is an attractive concept for an upgraded laser facility aiming at a predictable and reproducible fusion gain with a simple target design.However,with the laser energies available at present,LEH size can be a critical issue.Owing to the uncertainties in simulation results,the LEH size should be determined on the basis of experimental evidence.However,determination of LEH size of an ignition target at a small-scale laser facility poses difficulties.In this paper,we propose to use the prepulse of an ignition pulse to determine the LEH size for ignition-scale hohlraums via LEH closure behavior,and we present convincing evidence from multiple diagnostics at the SGIII facility with ignition-scale hohlraum,laser prepulse,and laser beam size.The LEH closure observed in our experiment is in agreement with data from the National Ignition Facility.The total LEH area of the octahedral hohlraum is found to be very close to that of a cylindrical hohlraum,thus successfully demonstrating the feasibility of the octahedral hohlraum in terms of laser energy,which is crucially important for sizing an ignition-scale octahedrally configured laser system.This work provides a novel way to determine the LEH size of an ignition target at a small-scale laser facility,and it can be applied to other hohlraum configurations for the indirect drive approach.

The effects of incident light wavelength difference on the collective stimulated Brillouin scattering in plasmas

The first laser–plasma interaction experiment using lasers of eight beams grouped into one octad has been conducted on the Shenguang Octopus facility.Although each beam intensity is below its individual threshold for stimulated Brillouin backscattering(SBS),collective behaviors are excited to enhance the octad SBS.In particular,when two-color/cone lasers with wavelength separation 0.3 nm are used,the backward SBS reflectivities show novel behavior in which beams of longer wavelength achieve higher SBS gain.This property of SBS can be attributed to the rotation of the wave vectors of common ion acoustic waves due to the competition of detunings between geometrical angle and wavelength separation.This mechanism is confirmed using massively parallel supercomputer simulations with the three-dimensional laser–plasma interaction code LAP3D.

Collective stimulated Brillouin scattering modes of two crossing laser beams with shared scattered wave

In inertial confinement fusion(ICF),overlapping of laser beams is common.Owing to the effective high laser intensity of the overlapped beams,the collective mode of stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS)with a shared scattered light wave is potentially important.In this work,an exact analytic solution for the convective gain coefficient of the collective SBS modes with shared scattered wave is presented for two overlapped beams based on a linear kineticmodel.The effects of the crossing angle,polarization states,and finite beamoverlapping volume of the two laser beams on the shared light modes are analyzed for cases with zero and nonzero wavelength difference between the two beams.It is found that all these factors have a significant influence on the shared lightmodes of SBS.Furthermore,the out-of-plane modes,in which the wavevectors of daughter waves lie in different planes from the two overlapped beams,are found to be important for certain polarization states and especially for obtuse crossing angles.In particular,adjusting the polarization directions of the two beams to be orthogonal to each other or tuning the wavelength difference to a sufficiently large value(of the order of nanometers)are found to be effective methods to suppress the shared light modes of SBS.This work will be helpful for comprehending and suppressing collective SBS with shared scattered waves in ICF experiments.