Anomalous yield reduction in direct-drive deuterium/tritium implosions due to H3e addition

Glass capsules were imploded in direct drive on the OMEGA laser [Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] to look for anomalous degradation in deuterium/tritium (DT) yield and changes in reaction history with H3e addition. Such anomalies have previously been reported for D/H3e plasmas but had no...

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Published in:Physics of plasmas 2009-05, Vol.16 (5)
Main Authors: Herrmann, H. W., Langenbrunner, J. R., Mack, J. M., Cooley, J. H., Wilson, D. C., Evans, S. C., Sedillo, T. J., Kyrala, G. A., Caldwell, S. E., Young, C. S., Nobile, A., Wermer, J., Paglieri, S., McEvoy, A. M., Kim, Y., Batha, S. H., Horsfield, C. J., Drew, D., Garbett, W., Rubery, M., Glebov, V. Yu, Roberts, S., Frenje, J. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Glass capsules were imploded in direct drive on the OMEGA laser [Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] to look for anomalous degradation in deuterium/tritium (DT) yield and changes in reaction history with H3e addition. Such anomalies have previously been reported for D/H3e plasmas but had not yet been investigated for DT/H3e. Anomalies such as these provide fertile ground for furthering our physics understanding of inertial confinement fusion implosions and capsule performance. Anomalous degradation in the compression component of yield was observed, consistent with the “factor of 2” degradation previously reported by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at a 50% H3e atom fraction in D2 using plastic capsules [Rygg, Phys. Plasmas 13, 052702 (2006)]. However, clean calculations (i.e., no fuel-shell mixing) predict the shock component of yield quite well, contrary to the result reported by MIT but consistent with Los Alamos National Laboratory results in D2/H3e [Wilson et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 112, 022015 (2008)]. X-ray imaging suggests less-than-predicted compression of capsules containing H3e. Leading candidate explanations are poorly understood equation of state for gas mixtures and unanticipated particle pressure variation with increasing H3e addition.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/1.3141062