Enhancements in Laser-Direct-Drive Nuclear Performance with Target Radius

Inertial confinement fusion is likely to require significant improvements in technology and design for large targets to implode at high driver energies. To assess the potential for benefits, we report on nuclear performance as a function of target radius R_{t} in direct-drive cryogenic implosions as performed on the OMEGA laser. The neutron yield and areal density are found to increase as R_{t}^{5.0±0.2} and R_{t}^{1.8±0.2}, respectively, and exhibit a much stronger dependence on target radius than previous studies have assumed. As this Letter demonstrates, these types of sensitivities should be expected when implosions are unstable, and have been degraded by a range of multidimensional effects in 3D. If the imperfections in a target and laser system are fixed in magnitude, it follows that larger implosions have higher relative quality, and approach criteria to ignite much more quickly than commonly appreciated.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Published
2025-12-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/8mtr-tgh7
Primary Topic
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
Type
article
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article

Enhancements in Laser-Direct-Drive Nuclear Performance with Target Radius

Anonymous, A. R. Christopherson, R. Betti, C. Shuldberg et al.
Physical Review Letters
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
article

Enhancements in Laser-Direct-Drive Nuclear Performance with Target Radius

Anonymous, A. R. Christopherson, R. Betti, C. Shuldberg, S. F. B. Morse, D. Cao, S. Sampat, R. T. Janezic, M. J. Bonino, A. Lees, W. T. Shmayda, T. J. B. Collins, C. Deeney, D. H. Edgell, S. T. Ivancic, K. A. Bauer, R. S. Craxton, M. J. Rosenberg, S. Fess, V. N. Goncharov, C. Stoeckl, V. Yu. Glebov, M. Tabak, J. L. Peebles, W. Theobald, C. A. Williams, T. Joshi, N. B. Alexander, S. P. Regan, M. P. Farrell, T. C. Sangster, F. J. Marshall, M. Michalko, K. S. Anderson, D. R. Harding, R. Epstein, D. W. Jacobs-Perkins, I. V. Igumenshchev, E. M. Campbell, V. Gopalaswamy, J. P. Knauer, R. C. Shah, D. Froula, M. Koch, D. Patel, H. G. Rinderknecht, D. Turnbull, J. Kwiatkowski, P. B. Radha, C. J. Forrest
article en

Abstract

Inertial confinement fusion is likely to require significant improvements in technology and design for large targets to implode at high driver energies. To assess the potential for benefits, we report on nuclear performance as a function of target radius R_{t} in direct-drive cryogenic implosions as performed on the OMEGA laser. The neutron yield and areal density are found to increase as R_{t}^{5.0±0.2} and R_{t}^{1.8±0.2}, respectively, and exhibit a much stronger dependence on target radius than previous studies have assumed. As this Letter demonstrates, these types of sensitivities should be expected when implosions are unstable, and have been degraded by a range of multidimensional effects in 3D. If the imperfections in a target and laser system are fixed in magnitude, it follows that larger implosions have higher relative quality, and approach criteria to ignite much more quickly than commonly appreciated.

Physical Review LettersVol. 136(4)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US), University of California San Diego (US), Focused Photonics (China) (CN), Xcel Energy (United States) (US), Sandia National Laboratories (US), University of Rochester (US), General Atomics (United States) (US)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 23%
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
DOISourceOpenAlex
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