Velocity and timing of multiple spherically converging shock waves in liquid deuterium.

The fuel entropy and required drive energy for an inertial confinement fusion implosion are set by a sequence of shocks that must be precisely timed to achieve ignition. This Letter reports measurements of multiple spherical shock waves in liquid deuterium that facilitate timing inertial confinement fusion shocks to the required precision. These experiments produced the highest shock velocity observed in liquid deuterium (U(s) = 135  km/s at ∼2500  GPa) and also the first observation of convergence effects on the shock velocity. Simulations model the shock-timing results well when a nonlocal transport model is used in the coronal plasma.