Comparison of ablators for the polar direct drive exploding pusher platform

We examine the performance of pure boron, boron carbide, high density carbon, and boron nitride ablators in the polar direct drive exploding pusher (PDXP) platform. The platform uses the polar direct drive configuration at the National Ignition Facility to drive high ion temperatures in a room tempe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:High energy density physics 2021-03, Vol.38, p.100928, Article 100928
Main Authors: Whitley, Heather D., Kemp, G. Elijah, Yeamans, Charles B., Walters, Zachary B., Blue, Brent E., Garbett, Warren J., Schneider, Marilyn B., Craxton, R. Stephen, Garcia, Emma M., McKenty, Patrick W., Gatu-Johnson, Maria, Caspersen, Kyle, Castor, John I., Däne, Markus, Ellison, C. Leland, Gaffney, Jim A., Graziani, Frank R., Klepeis, John E., Kostinski, Natalie B., Kritcher, Andrea L., Lahmann, Brandon, Lazicki, Amy E., Le, Hai P., London, Richard A., Maddox, Brian, Marshall, Michelle C., Martin, Madison E., Militzer, Burkhard, Nikroo, Abbas, Nilsen, Joseph, Ogitsu, Tadashi, Pask, John E., Pino, Jesse E., Rubery, Michael S., Shepherd, Ronnie, Sterne, Philip A., Swift, Damian C., Yang, Lin, Zhang, Shuai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Ablators
Direct drive
Exploding pusher
Inertial confinement fusion
Physics - Plasma physics
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Summary:We examine the performance of pure boron, boron carbide, high density carbon, and boron nitride ablators in the polar direct drive exploding pusher (PDXP) platform. The platform uses the polar direct drive configuration at the National Ignition Facility to drive high ion temperatures in a room temperature capsule and has potential applications for plasma physics studies and as a neutron source. The higher tensile strength of these materials compared to plastic enables a thinner ablator to support higher gas pressures, which could help optimize its performance for plasma physics experiments, while ablators containing boron enable the possibility of collecting additional data to constrain models of the platform. Applying recently developed and experimentally validated equation of state models for the boron materials, we examine the performance of these materials as ablators in 2D simulations, with particular focus on changes to the ablator and gas areal density, as well as the predicted symmetry of the inherently 2D implosion.
ISSN:1574-1818
1878-0563
DOI:10.1016/j.hedp.2021.100928