Growth of ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability induced by time-varying heat-flux perturbation

The evolution of ablative Rayleigh–Taylor instability(ARTI)induced by single-mode stationary and time-varying perturbations in heat flux is studied numerically in two dimensions.Compared with the stationary case,time-varying heat-flux perturbation mitigates ARTI growth because of the enhanced thermal smoothing induced by the wave-like traveling heat flux.A resonance is found to form when the phase velocity of the heat-flux perturbation matches the average sound speed in the ablation region.In the resonant regime,the coherent density and temperature fluctuations enhance the electron thermal conduction in the ablation region and lead to larger ablation pressure and effective acceleration,which consequently yield higher linear growth rate and saturated bubble velocity.The enhanced effective acceleration offers increased implosion velocity but can also compromise the integrity of inertial confinement fusion shells by causing faster ARTI growth.

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.

Study of the asymmetry of hot-spot self-emission imaging of inertial confinement fusion implosion driven by high-power laser facilities

Implosion asymmetry is a crucial problem quenching ignition in the field of inertial confinement fusion.A forward-calculation method based on 1D and 2D hydrodynamic simulations has been developed to generate and study the x-ray images of hot-spot self-emission,indicating asymmetry integrated over the entire drive pulse.It is shown that the x-ray imaging photon energy should be higher to avoid the influence of the remaining shell.The contour level(percentage of the maximum emission intensity)and spatial resolution should be as low as possible,optimally less than 20%and 3μm,for characterization of higher-mode signatures such as Ps-P12 by x-ray self-emission images.On the contrary,signatures of lower-mode such as P2 remain clear at all contour levels and spatial resolutions.These key results can help determine the optimal diagnostics,laser,and target parameters for implosion experiments.Recent typical hot-spot asymmetry measurements and applications on the Shenguang 100 kJ class laser facility are also reported.

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 application of proton spectrometers at the SG-III facility for ICF implosion areal density diagnostics

Charged particle diagnostics is one of the required techniques for implosion areal density diagnostics at the SG-III facility.Several proton spectrometers are under development, and some preliminary areal density diagnostics have been carried out. The response of the key detector, CR39, to charged particles was investigated in detail. A new track profile simulation code based on a semi-empirical model was developed. The energy response of the CR39 detector was calibrated with the accelerator protons and alphas from a241 Am source. A proton spectrometer based on the filtered CR39 detector was developed, and D–D primary proton measurements were implemented. A step range filter spectrometer was developed,and preliminary areal density diagnostics was carried out. A wedged range filter spectrometer array made of Si with a higher resolution was designed and developed at the SG-III facility. A particle response simulation code by the Monte Carlo method and a spectra unfolding code were developed. The capability was evaluated in detail by simulations.