First polar direct-drive exploding-pusher target experiments on the ShenGuang laser facility

Low density and low convergence implosion occurs in the exploding-pusher target experiment, and generates neutrons isotropically to develop a high yield platform.In order to validate the performance of ShenGuang(SG) laser facility and test nuclear diagnostics, all 48-beam lasers with an on-target energy of 48 kJ were firstly used to drive room-temperature, DT gas-filled glass targets.The optimization has been carried out and optimal drive uniformity was obtained by the combination of beam repointing and target.The final irradiation uniformity of less than 5% on polar direct-drive capsules of 540 μm in diameter was achieved, and the highest thermonuclear yield of the polar direct-drive DT fuel implosion at the SG was 1.04 × 10^(13).The experiment results show neutron yields severely depend on the irradiation uniformity and laser timing,and decrease with the increase of the diameter and fuel pressure of the target.The thin CH ablator does not impact the implosion performance, but the laser drive uniformity is important.The simulated results validate that the cos γ distribution laser design is reasonable and can achieve a symmetric pressure distribution.Further optimization will focus on measuring the symmetry of the hot spot by self-emission imaging, increasing the diameter, and decreasing the fuel pressure.

Studies on the motion and radiation of interior plasmas in gas-filled hohlraums with different laser entrance hole sizes

An experiment on 100 k J laser facility is performed to study the motive features and radiation properties of plasmas from different areas inside gas-filled cylindrical hohlraums.These hohlraums are designed to possess one open end and one laser entrance hole(LEH)with different diameters,which would or not result in the blocking of the LEH.An x-ray streak camera that is set at 16 degrees with respect to the hohlraum axis is applied to acquire the timeresolved x-ray images from the open end.Based on the images,we can study the evolutions of the wall plasma,corona bubble plasma and LEH plasma simultaneously through an equivalent view field of hohlraum interior.Multi-group flat response x-ray detectors are applied to measure the x-ray fluxes.In order to understand these characteristics,our two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic code is used to simulate the experimental results.For the accuracy of reproduction,dielectronic recombination and two parameter corrections are applied in our code.Based on the comparison between experiments and simulations,we quantitatively understand the blocking process of LEH and the motion effects of other plasmas.The calibrated code is beneficial to design the gas-filled hohlraum in a nearby parameter space,especially the limit size of LEH.

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 diagnostic developments at the 100 kJ-level laser facility in China

A 100 kJ-level laser facility has been designed to study inertial confinement fusion physics in China.This facility incorporates various diagnostic techniques,including optical,x-ray imaging,x-ray spectrum,and fusion product diagnostics,as well as general diagnostics assistance systems and central control and data acquisition systems.This paper describes recent developments in diagnostics at the facility.

Progress in octahedral spherical hohlraum study

In this paper,we give a review of our theoretical and experimental progress in octahedral spherical hohlraum study.From our theoretical study,the octahedral spherical hohlraums with 6 Laser Entrance Holes(LEHs)of octahedral symmetry have robust high symmetry during the capsule implosion at hohlraum-to-capsule radius ratio larger than 3.7.In addition,the octahedral spherical hohlraums also have potential superiority on low backscattering without supplementary technology.We studied the laser arrangement and constraints of the octahedral spherical hohlraums,and gave a design on the laser arrangement for ignition octahedral hohlraums.As a result,the injection angle of laser beams of 50°-60°was proposed as the optimum candidate range for the octahedral spherical hohlraums.We proposed a novel octahedral spherical hohlraum with cylindrical LEHs and LEH shields,in order to increase the laser coupling efficiency and improve the capsule symmetry and to mitigate the influence of the wall blowoff on laser transport.We studied on the sensitivity of the octahedral spherical hohlraums to random errors and compared the sensitivity among the octahedral spherical hohlraums,the rugby hohlraums and the cylindrical hohlraums,and the results show that the octahedral spherical hohlraums are robust to these random errors while the cylindrical hohlraums are the most sensitive.Up till to now,we have carried out three experiments on the spherical hohlraum with 2 LEHs on Shenguang(SG)laser facilities,including demonstration of improving laser transport by using the cylindrical LEHs in the spherical hohlraums,spherical hohlraum energetics on the SGIII prototype laser facility,and comparisons of laser plasma instabilities between the spherical hohlraums and the cylindrical hohlraums on the SGIII laser facility.

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.

Corrigendum to“First demonstration of improving laser propagation inside the spherical hohlraums by using the cylindrical laser entrance hole”[Matter Radiation Extremes 1(1)(2016)2-7]

Corrigendum Text:On page 2 of this letter,there is a misprint in the unit.The unit of the geometrical dimension of the spherical hohlraums on this page should always be“mm”rather than“mm”,i.e.in the second paragraph,“…with 800 J per beam at 0.35 mm…”should be“…with 800 J per beam at 0.35 mm…”,“The slit of 400 mm width is parallel…”should be“The slit of 400 mm width is parallel…”,“The laser focal diameter is about 500 mm…”should be“The laser focal diameter is about 500 mm…”;in the third paragraph,“…we take 850 mm as the radius…”should be“…we take 850 mm as the radius…”,“The LEH radius R_(L) is 400 mm…”should be“The LEH radius R_(L) is 400 mm…”,“…the radius of the cylindrical LEH outer ring is taken as 1.5 R_(L)=600 mm”should be“…the radius of the cylindrical LEH outer ring is taken as 1.5 R_(L)=600 mm”.This mistake does not affect any of the main results of the original letter.

First experimental comparisons of laser-plasma interactions between spherical and cylindrical hohlraums at SGⅢ laser facility

We present our recent laser-plasmas instability(LPI)comparison experiment at the SGIII laser facility between the spherical and cylindrical hohlraums.Three kinds of filling are considered:vacuum,gas-filling with or without a capsule inside.A spherical hohlraum of 3.6 mm in diameter,and a cylindrical hohlraum of 2.4 mm?4.3 mm are used.The capsule diameter is 0.96 mm.A flat-top laser pulse with 3 ns duration and up to 92.73 kJ energy is used.The experiment has shown that the LPI level in the spherical hohlraum is close to that of the outer beam in the cylindrical hohlraum,while much lower than that of the inner beam.The experiment is further simulated by using our 2-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic code LARED-Integration,and the laser back-scattering fraction and the stimulated Raman scatter(SRS)spectrum are post-processed by the high efficiency code of laser interaction with plasmas HLIP.According to the simulation,the plasma waves are strongly damped and the SRS is mainly developed at the plasma conditions of electron density from 0.08 n_(c) to 0.1 n_(c) and electron temperature from 1.5 keV to 2.0 keV inside the hohlraums.However,obvious differences between the simulation and experiment are found,such as that the SRS back-scattering is underestimated,and the numerical SRS spectrum peaks at a larger wavelength and at a later time than the data.These dif-ferences indicate that the development of a 3D radiation hydrodynamic code,with more accurate physics models,is mandatory for spherical hohlraum study.

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.

Progress in optical Thomson scattering diagnostics for ICF gas-filled hohlraums

Optical Thomson scattering(OTS)diagnostics have been continuously developed on a series of large laser facilities for inertial confinement fusion(ICF)research in China.We review recent progress in the use of OTS diagnostics to study the internal plasma conditions of ICF gas-filled hohlraums.We establish the predictive capability for experiments by calculating the time-resolved Thomson scattering spectra based on the 2D radiation-hydrodynamic code LARED,and we explore the fitting method for the measured spectra.A typical experiment with a simplified cylindrical hohlraum is conducted on a 10 kJ-level laser facility,and the plasma evolution around the laser entrance hole is analyzed.The dynamic effects of the blast wave from the covering membrane and the convergence of shocks on the hohlraum axis are observed,and the experimental results agree well with those of simulations.Another typical experiment with an octahedral spherical hohlraum is conducted on a 100 kJ-level laser facility,and the plasma evolution at the hohlraum center is analyzed.A discrepancy appears between experiment and simulation as the electron temperature rises,indicating the occurrence of nonlocal thermal conduction.

First demonstration of improving laser propagation inside the spherical hohlraums by using the cylindrical laser entrance hole

The octahedral spherical hohlraums have natural superiority in maintaining high radiation symmetry during the entire capsule implosion process in indirect drive inertial confinement fusion.While,in contrast to the cylindrical hohlraums,the narrow space between the laser beams and the spherical hohlraum wall is usually commented.In this Letter,we address this crucial issue and report our experimental work conducted on the SGIII-prototype laser facility which unambiguously demonstrates that a simple design of cylindrical laser entrance hole(LEH)can dramatically improve the laser propagation inside the spherical hohlraums.In addition,the laser beam deflection in the hohlraum is observed for the first time in the experiments.Our 2-dimensional simulation results also verify qualitatively the advantages of the spherical hohlraums with cylindrical LEHs.Our results imply the prospect of adopting the cylindrical LEHs in future spherical ignition hohlraum design.

A simple analytical model of laser direct-drive thin shell target implosion

A high-neutron yield platform imploded by a thin shell target is generally built to probe nuclear science problems,and it has the advantages of high neutron yield,ultrashort fusion time,micro fusion zone,isotropic and monoenergetic neutron.Some analytical models have been proposed to interpret exploding-pusher target implosion driven by a long wavelength laser,whereas they are imperfect for a 0.35 μm laser implosion experiment.When using the 0.35 μm laser,the shell is ablated and accelerated to high implosion velocity governed by Newton’s law,ablation acceleration and quasi-adiabatic compression models are suitable to explain the implosion of a laser direct-drive thin shell target.The new analytical model scales bang time,ion temperature and neutron yield for large variations in laser power,target radius,shell thickness,and fuel pressure.The predicted results of the analytical model are in agreement with experimental data on the ShenguangIII prototype laser facility,100 kJ laser facility,Omega,and NIF,it demonstrates that the analytical model benefits the understanding of experiment performance and optimizing the target design of high neutron yield implosion.

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.

Investigation Into the Electromagnetic Impulses From Long- Pulse Laser Illuminating Solid Targets Inside a Laser Facility

Emission of the electromagnetic pulses （EMP） due to laser-target interaction in laser facility had been evaluated using a cone antenna in this work. The microwave in frequencies ranging from several hundreds of MHz to 2 GHz was recorded when long-pulse lasers with several thousands of joules illuminated the solid targets, meanwhile the voltage signals from 1V to 4V were captured as functions of laser energy and backlight laser, where the corresponding electric field strengths were obtained by simulating the cone antenna in combination with conducting a mathematical process （Tiknohov Regularization with L curve）. All the typical coupled voltage oscillations displayed multiple peaks and had duration of up to 80ns before decaying into noise and mechanisms of the EMP generation was schematically interpreted in basis of the practical measuring environments. The resultant data were expected to offer basic know-how to achieve inertial confinement fusion.

Theoretical and simulation research of hydrodynamic instabilities in inertial-confinement fusion implosions

Inertial fusion energy （IFE） has been considered a promising, nearly inexhaustible source of sustainable carbon-free power for the world＇s energy future. It has long been recognized that the control of hydrodynamic instabilities is of critical importance for ignition and high-gain in the inertial-confinement fusion （ICF） hot-spot ignition scheme. In this mini-review, we summarize the progress of theoretical and simulation research of hydrodynamic instabilities in the ICF central hot-spot implosion in our group over the past decade. In order to obtain sufficient understanding of the growth of hydrodynamic instabilities in ICF, we first decompose the problem into different stages according to the implosion physics processes. The decomposed essential physics pro- cesses that are associated with ICF implosions, such as Rayleigh-Taylor instability （RTI）, Richtmyer-Meshkov instability （RMI）, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability （KHI）, convergent geometry effects, as well as perturbation feed-through are reviewed. Analyti- cal models in planar, cylindrical, and spherical geometries have been established to study different physical aspects, including density-gradient, interface-coupling, geometry, and convergent effects. The influence of ablation in the presence of preheating on the RTI has been extensively studied by numerical simulations. The KHI considering the ablation effect has been discussed in detail for the first time. A series of single-mode ablative RTI experiments has been performed on the Shenguang-II laser facility. The theoretical and simulation research provides us the physical insights of linear and weakly nonlinear growths, and nonlinear evolutions of the hydrodynamic instabilities in ICF implosions, which has directly supported the research of ICF ignition target design. The ICF hot-spot ignition implosion design that uses several controlling features, based on our current understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities, to address shell implosion stability, has been briefly described, several of which are novel.

Laboratory study of astrophysical collisionless shock at SG-Ⅱ laser facility

Astrophysical collisionless shocks are amazing phenomena in space and astrophysical plasmas, where supersonic flows generate electromagnetic fields through instabilities and particles can be accelerated to high energy cosmic rays. Until now, understanding these micro-processes is still a challenge despite rich astrophysical observation data have been obtained. Laboratory astrophysics, a new route to study the astrophysics, allows us to investigate them at similar extreme physical conditions in laboratory. Here we will review the recent progress of the collisionless shock experiments performed at SG-II laser facility in China. The evolution of the electrostatic shocks and Weibel-type/filamentation instabilities are observed. Inspired by the configurations of the counter-streaming plasma flows, we also carry out a novel plasma collider to generate energetic neutrons relevant to the astrophysical nuclear reactions.

Anomalous-plasmoid-ejection-induced secondary magnetic reconnection: modeling solar flares and coronal mass ejections by laser–plasma experiments

The driving mechanism of solar flares and coronal mass ejections is a topic of ongoing debate, apart from the consensus that magnetic reconnection plays a key role during the impulsive process. While present solar research mostly depends on observations and theoretical models, laboratory experiments based on high-energy density facilities provide the third method for quantitatively comparing astrophysical observations and models with data achieved in experimental settings.In this article, we show laboratory modeling of solar flares and coronal mass ejections by constructing the magnetic reconnection system with two mutually approaching laser-produced plasmas circumfused of self-generated megagauss magnetic fields. Due to the Euler similarity between the laboratory and solar plasma systems, the present experiments demonstrate the morphological reproduction of flares and coronal mass ejections in solar observations in a scaled sense,and confirm the theory and model predictions about the current-sheet-born anomalous plasmoid as the initial stage of coronal mass ejections, and the behavior of moving-away plasmoid stretching the primary reconnected field lines into a secondary current sheet conjoined with two bright ridges identified as solar flares.

Laboratorial radiative shocks with multiple parameters and first quantifying verifications to core-collapse supernovae

A radiative shock(RS)is one in which the density and temperature structures are affected by radiation from the shock-heated matter.RS plays a special role in astrophysics as it nontrivially combines both hydrodynamics and radiation physics.In most astrophysical shocks,the temperature and density conditions lead to strong emission,with radiation thus playing a major role therein.