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Both direct and indirect drive concepts of inertial confinement fusion rely on targets with cryogenic thermonuclear fuel shells for ignition. Experiments on the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility using laser-driven gas-filled hohlraums show distinct differences between cryogenic (20 K) and warm hohlraums. Although the measured x-ray flux in the photon range from 1.6 to 4.4 keV (Au M-band) is identical between cryogenic and warm hohlraums, the cryogenic hohlraum has a much slower rate of rise and is 20% lower in peak intensity of x-ray flux in the photon range from 0.1 to 4 keV. The reasons for this drive deficit between cryogenic and warm hohlraums are investigated using a similar series of hohlraum experiments. The experiments employ three types of hohlraums to distinguish the effect of a shroud window membrane and condensates. Warm hohlraums with a shroud window membrane replicate the slower rate of rise of radiation flux of cryogenic targets. When the shroud window is present, the measured x-ray flux in the hohlraum shows a drive deficit that decreases with time. However, the measured deficit increases as the viewing angle increases. All of these results indicate that the portion of the shroud not illuminated by the lasers absorbs the outgoing x-ray flux from the hohlraum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In inertial confinement fusion, quantitative and high-spatial resolution ( < 10 μ m) measurements of the X-rays self-emitted by the hotspot are critical for studying the physical processes of the implosion stagnation stage. Herein, the 8 ± 0.39-keV monochromatic X-ray distribution from the entire hotspot is quantitatively observed in 5- μ m spatial resolution using a Kirkpatrick–Baez microscope, with impacts from the responses of the diagnosis system removed, for the first time, in implosion experiments at the 100 kJ laser facility in China. Two-dimensional calculations along with 2.5% P2 drive asymmetry and 0.3 ablator self-emission are congruent with the experimental results, especially for the photon number distribution, hotspot profile, and neutron yield. Theoretical calculations enabled a better understanding of the experimental results. Furthermore, the origins of the 17.81% contour profile of the deuterium-deuterium hotspot and the accurate Gaussian source approximation of the core emission area in the implosion capsule are clarified in detail. This work is significant for quantitatively exploring the physical conditions of the hotspot and updating the theoretical model of capsule implosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the laser plasma instabilities (LPIs) in the context of some novel six-side laser-driven indirect designs like the six-cylinder-port hohlraum and the three-axis cylindrical hohlraum, where the laser beams inject in hohlraum with a large angle. LPI experiments in cylindrical hohlraum with only outer beams were designed and performed based on the current laser arrangement condition of SGIII laser facility for the first time. Stimulated Brillouin backscatter (SBS) was found to be the dominant instability with high instantaneous reflectivity in experiments. A typical feature was obtained in the time-resolved spectra of SBS, which maintained similar for different laser intensities of the interaction beam. The experimental data are analyzed by the hydrodynamic simulations combined with HLIP code, which is based on the ray-tracing model. By analysis of experimental data, it is argued that the mixture of gas and Au in the region of their interface is important to SBS, which indicates the need for the mixture model between the filled gas and the high Z plasma from hohlraum wall in the hydrodynamic simulations. Nonlinear saturation of SBS as well as the smoothed beam are also discussed here. Our effective considerations of the ions pervasion effect and the smoothed beam provide utilitarian ways for improvement of the current ray-tracing method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative evaluation of the fractions of high energy x-rays in a hohlraum is crucial to the indirect driven-drive scheme of inertial confinement fusion and many other applications in high energy density physics. Preheat of a sample due to x-rays sensitively depends on optical thin photons. Analyzing the motion of a sample due to preheat can thus provide valuable information of those x-rays. In this article, we propose a method to infer the temporal evolution of the x-ray fluxes in the bands of our interest. By matching the simulation results to the motions of an aluminum sample, we can infer the time-resolved x-ray fluxes around the aluminum K-edge and the gold M-band inside the hohlraum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]