Hydrodynamic instability growth and mix experiments at the National Ignition Facility

Modeling of multi-interface, diverging, hydrodynamic experiments for the National Ignition Facility

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will soon provide experiments with far more than ten times the energy than has been previously available on laser facilities. In the context of supernova-relevant hydrodynamics, this will enable experiments in which hydrodynamic instabilities develop from multiple, coupled interfaces in a diverging explosion. This paper discusses the design of such blast-wav...

Measurements of an ablator-gas atomic mix in indirectly driven implosions at the National Ignition Facility.

We present the first results from an experimental campaign to measure the atomic ablator-gas mix in the deceleration phase of gas-filled capsule implosions on the National Ignition Facility. Plastic capsules containing CD layers were filled with tritium gas; as the reactants are initially separated, DT fusion yield provides a direct measure of the atomic mix of ablator into the hot spot gas. Ca...

Advanced Gated X-Ray Imagers for Experiments at the National Ignition Facility

X-ray imaging is integral to the measurement of the properties of hot plasmas. To this end, a suite of gated x-ray imagers have been developed for use in a wide range of experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). These instruments are sensitive to x-rays over the range of 0.7-90keV and can acquire images at 20ps intervals for source intensities ranging over several orders of magnitude...

Relativistic Plasma Physics at the National Ignition Facility

Neutron activation diagnostics at the National Ignition Facility (invited).

Neutron yields are measured at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) by an extensive suite of neutron activation diagnostics. Neutrons interact with materials whose reaction cross sections threshold just below the fusion neutron production energy, providing an accurate measure of primary unscattered neutrons without contribution from lower-energy scattered neutrons. Indium samples are mounted on...