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The new hohlraum experimental platform and the quasi-3D simulation model are developed to enable the study of the indirect drive experiment using the six-cylinder-port hohlraum for the first time. It is also the first implosion experiment for the six laser-entrance-hole hohlraum to effectively use all the laser beams of the laser facility that is primarily designed for the cylindrical hohlraum. The experiments performed at the 100 kJ Laser Facility produce a peak hohlraum radiation temperature of ∼222 eV for ∼80 kJ and 2 ns square laser pulse. The inferred x-ray conversion efficiency η∼87% is similar to the cylindrical hohlraum and higher than the octahedral spherical hohlraum at the same laser facility, while the low laser backscatter is similar to the outer cone of the cylindrical hohlraum. The hohlraum radiation temperature and M-band (1.6 keV) flux can be well reproduced by the quasi-3D simulation. The variations of the yield-over-clean and the hot spot shape can also be semiquantitatively explained by the calculated major radiation asymmetry of the quasi-3D simulation. Our work demonstrates the capability for the study of the indirect drive with the six-cylinder-port hohlraum at the cylindrically configured laser facility, which is essential for numerically assessing the laser energy required by the ignition-scale six-cylinder-port hohlraum.

In inertial confinement approaches to fusion, the asymmetry of target implosion is a major obstacle to achieving high gain in the laboratory. A recently proposed octahedral spherical hohlraum makes it possible to naturally create spherical target irradiation without supplementary symmetry control. Before any decision is made to pursue an ignition-scale laser system based on the octahedral hohlraum, one needs to test the concept with the existing facilities. Here, we report a proof-of-concept experiment for the novel octahedral hohlraum geometry on the cylindrically configured SGIII laser facility without a symmetry control. All polar and equatorial self-emission images of the compressed target show a near round shape of convergence ratio 15 under both square and shaped laser pulses. The observed implosion performances agree well with the ideal spherical implosion simulation. It also shows limitations with using the existing facilities and adds further weight to the need to move to a spherical port geometry for future ignition laser facilities.

A high-neutron yield platform imploded by a thin shell target is generally built to probe nuclear science problems, and it has the advantages of high neutron yield, ultrashort fusion time, micro fusion zone, isotropic and monoenergetic neutron. Some analytical models have been proposed to interpret exploding-pusher target implosion driven by a long wavelength laser, whereas they are imperfect for a 0.35 μm laser implosion experiment. When using the 0.35 μm laser, the shell is ablated and accelerated to high implosion velocity governed by Newton’s law, ablation acceleration and quasi-adiabatic compression models are suitable to explain the implosion of a laser direct-drive thin shell target. The new analytical model scales bang time, ion temperature and neutron yield for large variations in laser power, target radius, shell thickness, and fuel pressure. The predicted results of the analytical model are in agreement with experimental data on the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility, 100 kJ laser facility, Omega, and NIF, it demonstrates that the analytical model benefits the understanding of experiment performance and optimizing the target design of high neutron yield implosion.

In inertial confinement fusion, quantitative and high-spatial resolution ($$< 10\,\upmu $$ < 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-$$\upmu $$ 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.

In indirectly driven inertial confinement fusion, a high-purity germanium detector is widely used in the calibration of various X-ray detectors as a quantitative spectrum detector for the irradiating X-ray. However, the intrinsic peak efficiency of the high-purity germanium detector, which is the foundation of its applications, has not been investigated in depth. In this work, an optimized data-processing method is developed to explore the intrinsic peak efficiency of the high-purity germanium detector, based on calibration experiments. The intrinsic peak efficiency of the detector is absolutely and accurately calibrated and simulated for X-ray energy in the range of 5.48–302.85 keV. The experimental and simulated results, which agree well, are analyzed and explained in detail. The efficiency curve obtained from the data reveals the rise, flat, and fall characters. In addition, the impact of the absorption edge, which is located at 11.10 keV, on the efficiency curve was found and explained in terms of the escape of the excited K α lines. This work will improve the calibration efficiency of various X-ray detectors based on the high-purity germanium detector, and help in advancing the quantitative understanding of the detection results in inertial confinement fusion.

Radiation computation is very important for high energy density experiments design in the laser-driven Inertial Confinement Fusion. The view-factor based models are often used to calculate the radiation on the capsule inside a hohlraum. However, it usually takes much time to solve them when the number of equations is very large. In this paper, an efficient iteration approach GPU is presented. The core idea is: (1) guaranteed symmetry, strictly diagonally dominant, and positive definite properties underlying the models are described, (2) a preconditioned conjugate gradient iteration approach is presented to compute the radiation based on such guaranteed properties, and (3) such approach is then parallelized and implemented for GPU so that the large scale models, especially for the non-linear model, can be efficiently solved in reasonable time. Finally, two experimental targets for Shenguang laser facilities built in China are demonstrated and compared to validate the efficiency of the presented approach. The results show that, the models’ computation (1) can be speeded up with successive over-relax iteration method by eight times as compared with Cholesky factorization based direct approach, (2) can be accelerated more with the preconditioned conjugate gradient iteration approach by almost eight times, and (3) can be further accelerated about 2 to 4 times as it parallelized and run on the GPU, which enables the large scale models, can be efficiently solved in reasonable time on the usual desktop computers.

To achieve ignition with high gain in inertial confinement fusion, precise symmetry control is one of the key issues to guarantee the PdV work converting into the inner energy efficiently and maximize the pressure of the hot spot. The shaped pulse is used to maintain a low adiabat of the shell. A longer pulse and more compressible shell require more rigorous symmetry control, especially the driven symmetry during the picket pulse and main pulse. A surrogate capsule with high Z materials is usually used for the early-time symmetry tuning. The passive diagnosis of the re-emission spheres gives the time-resolved measurement of the first 2 ns, and the precision is mainly affected by the weak signals due to the low radiation temperature of the hohlraum. To compare with the re-emission technique with high Z surrogate capsule, we demonstrated the early-time symmetry tuning for picket pulse by using thin-shell capsule radiography technique. Combined with 1D hydrodynamics simulation and backlit imaging simulation, the driven asymmetry was quantified. A view factor assessment was also carried out by IRAD3D and coincided with the experimental consequences.

Enhancement of x-ray sources from laser-produced plasmas is significant in wide-ranging applications. Solid and foam TiO2 targets were both used to generate bright x-ray sources at the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility, with a total laser power of 3.2 TW. The new foam targets were with an ultra-low initial density of 8.1 mg/cm3 and a high Ti fraction of 33 sat. %. By absolute measurements, the multi-keV x rays of the 4 keV–7 keV band and 1.6 keV–4.4 keV band and the total x rays above 0.1 keV of the foam target have simultaneously shown conversion enhancements of 1.4, 3.1, and 2.3 times, respectively, compared with the solid target. A much larger emission volume and an average electron temperature of 3.2 keV by moving the foci of laser beams inner were obtained for the foam target, providing a good condition for multi-keV x-ray production.

A 100 kJ-level laser facility has been designed to study inertial confinement fusion physics in China. This facility incorporates various diagnostic techniques, including optical, x-ray imaging, x-ray spectrum, and fusion product diagnostics, as well as general diagnostics assistance systems and central control and data acquisition systems. This paper describes recent developments in diagnostics at the facility.

High-space-resolving information of hotspot electron temperature is a foundation for further research on physical processes of implosion in inertial confinement fusion. This work proposed a novel high-space-resolving electron temperature detector, which is based on the bremsstrahlung radiation mechanism of the implosion hotspot and uses two-channel Kirkpatrick–Baez microscopes. In this novel detector, an optical quasi-coaxis method was used to eliminate the strong impact of the view field difference on the high space resolution and correctness of the electron temperature diagnosis, and a compound KB microscope method was proposed to reduce the number of spherical reflectors and save space.

The accuracy of the determination of the burn-averaged ion temperature of inertial confinement fusion implosions depends on the unfold process, including deconvolution and convolution methods, and the function, i.e., the detector response, used to fit the signals measured by neutron time-of-flight (nToF) detectors. The function given by Murphy et al. [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 68(1), 610-613 (1997)] has been widely used in Nova, Omega, and NIF. There are two components, i.e., fast and slow, and the contribution of scattered neutrons has not been dedicatedly considered. In this work, a new function, based on Murphy's function has been employed to unfold nToF signals. The contribution of scattered neutrons is easily included by the convolution of a Gaussian response function and an exponential decay. The ion temperature is measured by nToF with the new function. Good agreement with the ion temperature determined by the deconvolution method has been achieved.

X-ray imaging plates are one of the most important X-ray imaging detectors and are widely used in inertial-confinement fusion experiments. However, their linear response range, which is the foundation of their quantitative data analysis, has not been sufficiently deeply investigated. In this work, we develop an X-ray fluorescer calibration system and carefully explore the linear response range of X-ray imaging plates. For the first time, nearly the entire grayscale range of the X-ray imaging plate linear response—7819–64 879 in the range of 0–65 535—has been observed. Further, we discuss the uncertainties involved in the calibration process. This work demonstrates the excellent linear response qualities of X-ray imaging plates and provides a significant foundation for expanding their quantitative applied range.

A coaxial, high performance diamond detector has been developed for neutron diagnostics of inertial confinement fusion at ShenGuangIII laser facility. A Φ10 mm × 1 mm "optical grade" chemical-vapor deposition diamond wafer is assembled in coaxial-designing housing, and the signal is linked to a SubMiniature A connector by the cathode cone. The coaxial diamond detector performs excellently for neutron measurement with the full width at half maximum of response time to be 444 ps for a 50 Ω measurement system. The average sensitivity is 0.677 μV ns/n for 14 MeV (DT fusion) neutrons at an electric field of 1000 V/mm, and the linear dynamic range is beyond three orders of magnitude. The ion temperature results fluctuate widely from the neutron time-of-flight scintillator detector results because of the short flight length. These characteristics of small size, large linear dynamic range, and insensitive to x-ray make the diamond detector suitable to measure the neutron yield, ion temperature, and neutron emission time.

Areal density (ρR) is one of the crucial parameters in the inertial confinement fusion. Measurement of the fusion products is a more feasible method to diagnose ρR than other methods, such as X-ray. In the capsules filled with D 2 fuel or D- 3 He fuel, proton is an ideal probe to diagnose the implosion ρR in different emission times and directions by measurements of the proton yields and spectra. By D-D reaction protons and D- 3 He reaction protons, the diagnostics of the total and fuel ρR, ρR evolution, implosion asymmetry and mix effect have been demonstrated at OMEGA and NIF facilities. Also some advanced proton diagnostics instruments are developed with a high level capability. Preliminary diagnosis of ρR in the deuterium involved fuel capsules by measurement of protons at SG-III facility was implemented. A fusion product emission and transport code by Monte-Carlo method was developed. The primary and secondary protons emission and transport in the fuel and shell plasmas were able to be simulated. The relations of the proton energy loss and the secondary proton yields with the areal density were inspected. Several proton spectrometers have been built up at SG-III facility, such as a step ranged filter (SRF) proton spectrometer and a wedged range filter (WRF) proton spectrometer. Some proton response simulation codes and the codes for proton spectra reconstruction were also developed. The demonstrations of ρR diagnostics at SG-III facility by D-D reaction and D- 3 He reaction proton spectra measurements are presented.

The first implosion tuning experiment with a shaped pulse driven was performed on the SGIII laser facility by using 2D X-ray radiography. Under the careful design, we obtained the driven symmetry both in the picket and peak. The experimental results show that the P2/P0 asymmetry can be tuned by varying the fraction energy in the inner cone both in the picket and peak. The radiation symmetry at the peak is consistent with our simulation. However, the radiation symmetry in first 0.5 ns (picket) had an unexpected negative P2/P0, which is different from the simulation; it may be caused by inner cone absorption in the tent which supported the capsule.

Two neutron time-of-flight (nToF) detectors have been employed to measure the neutron time-of-flight spectrum in different lines-of-sight, i.e., at the equator plane and the south pole, on Shenguang-III (SG-III) laser facility. The contribution of scattered neutrons has been calculated with the Monte Carlo code JMCT for each nToF detector. The results show that the scattered neutron spectrum is dominated by neutrons scattered on materials in the experiment hall, including the vacuum chamber. The shape of the scattered neutron spectrum depends on the view line, which has been observed with nToF detectors located in the experiment hall of the SG-III laser facility. A method based on the convolution of the calculated neutron time-of-flight spectrum and the instrument response function has been developed for the ion temperature determination. The calculated neutron spectra with the contribution of scattered neutrons can fit the measured results. No obvious ion temperature anisotropy has been observed on the SG-III laser facility at present.Two neutron time-of-flight (nToF) detectors have been employed to measure the neutron time-of-flight spectrum in different lines-of-sight, i.e., at the equator plane and the south pole, on Shenguang-III (SG-III) laser facility. The contribution of scattered neutrons has been calculated with the Monte Carlo code JMCT for each nToF detector. The results show that the scattered neutron spectrum is dominated by neutrons scattered on materials in the experiment hall, including the vacuum chamber. The shape of the scattered neutron spectrum depends on the view line, which has been observed with nToF detectors located in the experiment hall of the SG-III laser facility. A method based on the convolution of the calculated neutron time-of-flight spectrum and the instrument response function has been developed for the ion temperature determination. The calculated neutron spectra with the contribution of scattered neutrons can fit the measured results. No obvious ion temperature anisotropy has been observed on the S...

The radiation drive asymmetry and laser-plasma instabilities (LPIs) inside the conventional cylindrical hohlraum configuration are two daunting issues in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion. Recently, an octahedral spherical hohlraum (SH) (Lan et al 2014 Phys. Plasmas 21 010704), a novel three-axis cylindrical hohlraum (TACH) (Kuang et al 2016 Sci. Rep. 6 34636), and an advanced three-axis elliptical hohlraum (TAEH) (Jing et al 2017 arXiv:1703.01579) with six laser entrance holes (LEHs) were proposed to mitigate these issues. In this paper, the performance of these three new hohlraum configurations is compared. Preliminary simulations indicate that the TAEH (with a case-to-capsule ratio, CCR = 2.8) could provide excellent radiation symmetry, comparable to those inside the SH (CCR = 5.1) and TACH (CCR = 2.2). The filling time of plasma affecting the LPIs is between those of the SH and TACH, and about 1.5 times the one in the ignition hohlraum Rev5-CH (300 eV) of the National Ignition Campaign (Haan et al 2011 Phys. Plasmas 18 051001). The energy coupling efficiency of the TAEH is about 29% and 17% greater than those inside the SH and TACH, respectively. Moreover, all three configurations have robust symmetry with respect to laser beam pointing errors and capsule offset, with the SH being the most insensitive.

We present the first integrated implosion experiments which were carried out on the SG-III Laser facility in 2015. Vacuum hohlraums and squared laser pulses were used in the experiments. The purpose of the experiments was to demonstrate the one-dimensional implosion performance at low-convergence ratios. To characterize the implosion performance, the hohlraum energetics, the implosion dynamics and the nuclear products were measured. In particular, the radiation flux was diagnosed through laser entrance hole at different angles by an array of flat response detectors, and the energy and the spectrum of the back-scattered lasers were monitored for 8 laser beams which correspond to 2 beams in each cone at the lower hemisphere. Moreover, the hotspot shape was imaged using KB microscopes of high spatial resolution simultaneously from the equator and polar views. Taking advantage of the high resolution, some detailed structures in the hotspots were noticed. For the best implosion performances, the neutron yields over 1D calculation reached 50% at the convergence-ratios of 15.

Achieving ignition via inertial confinement approach is of strong application value and important science significance. It is also a project of large scale that depends on the national strength. Involving theory, target fabrication, diagnostics, and laser facilities, integrated implosion experiment plays an important role in the research of ICF. Since the first successful neutron production with directly driven implosion in the 80’s, the quasi one-dimensional implosion performance dominated by shock compression was demonstrated in the period of 1990–2010, and the quasi one-dimensional implosion performance dominated by inertial compression was achieved in recent years. All of these facts definitely show the progress on improving the performance of integrated implosion. With the completion of SG-III laser facility, and in the situation of facing frustration in the US ignition program, there is grand opportunity and challenge when we are exploring toward the ignition parameter space with higher convergence ratio and lower adiabat.

The orbital relaxation effect was studied in the calculations and diagnostics of the L-shell absorption spectra ( 2 p → 3 d , 4 d , 5 d ) of iron and bromine plasmas. A detailed level accounting model was developed to calculate the huge number of L-shell absorption lines of the two typical mid-Z plasmas. The orbital sets were generated by the optimizations according to the initial and final states, respectively. It was found that the L-shell line positions agree with the experimental iron and bromine spectra better when the orbital relaxations were included in calculations. Since experimental mid-Z spectra have few detailed line structures, calculations without considering orbital relaxations may misinterpret the spectra and consequently lead to underestimations of the plasma temperatures.

The opacity of iron plasma in local thermodynamic equilibrium is studied using an independently developed detailed level accounting model. Atomic data are generated by solving the full relativistic Dirac-Fock equations. State mixing within one electronic configuration is considered to include part of the correlations between electrons without configuration interaction matrices that are too large being involved. Simulations are carried out and compared with several recent experimental transmission spectra in the M- and L-shell absorption regions to reveal the high accuracy of the model. The present model is also compared with the OPAL, LEDCOP and OP models for two isothermal series at T = 20 eV and T = 19.3 eV. It is found that our model is in good agreement with OPAL and LEDCOP while it has discrepancies with OP at high densities. Systematic Rosseland and Planck mean opacities in the range 10-1000 eV for temperature and 10–5-10–1 g cm–3 for density are also presented and compared with LEDCOP results, finding good agreement at lower temperatures but apparent differences at high temperatures where the L- and K-shell absorptions are dominant.

As usual cylindrical hohlraum with double laser ring cones may lead to serious laser-plasma interaction, such as the simulated Raman scatter and cross-beam energy transfer effect, spherical hohlraum with octahedral 6 Laser Entrance Holes (LEHs) and single cone laser beams, was investigated and reported to have a consistent high radiation symmetry during the whole implosion process. However, it has several potential challenges such as the smaller space left for diagnosis and the assembly of centrally located capsule. In this paper, based on the view-factor model, we investigate the radiation symmetry and the drive temperature on the capsule located in the spherical hohlraum with tetrahedral 4 LEHs and single cone laser beams, since there is more available space for laser disposition and diagnosis. Then, such target is optimized on the laser beam pointing direction to achieve a high radiation performance, i.e., the radiation symmetry and drive temperature on the capsule. Finally, an optimal spherical hohlraum with optimal laser beam pointing has been demonstrated and compared with the spherical hohlraum with octahedral 6 LEHs. The resulting radiation symmetry and the drive temperature shows that it has almost a similar radiation symmetry (the radiation asymmetry variation is no more than 0.2%), and higher drive temperature (the temperature has been increased by 1.73%, and an additional 133 kJ energy of 2 MJ energy for fusion can be saved).

The hohlraum is very crucial for indirect laser driven Inertial Confinement Fusion. Usually, its shape is designed as sphere, cylinder, or rugby with some kind of fixed functions, such as ellipse or parabola. Recently, a spherical hohlraum with octahedral 6 laser entrance holes (LEHs) has been presented with high flux symmetry [Lan et al., Phys. Plasmas 21, 010704 (2014); 21, 052704 (2014)]. However, there is only one shape parameter, i.e., the hohlraum to capsule radius ratio, being optimized. In this paper, we build the hohlraum with octahedral 6LEHs with a unified free-form representation, in which, by varying additional shape parameters: (1) available hohlraum shapes can be uniformly and accurately represented, (2) it can be used to understand why the spherical hohlraum has higher flux symmetry, (3) it allows us to obtain a feasible shape design field satisfying flux symmetry constraints, and (4) a synthetically optimized hohlraum can be obtained with a tradeoff of flux symmetry and other hohlraum performance. Finally, the hohlraum with octahedral 6LEHs is modeled, analyzed, and then optimized based on the unified free-form representation. The results show that a feasible shape design field with flux asymmetry no more than 1% can be obtained, and over the feasible design field, the spherical hohlraum is validated to have the highest flux symmetry, and a synthetically optimal hohlraum can be found with closing flux symmetry but larger volume between laser spots and centrally located capsule.

A novel flat-response x-ray detector has been developed for the measurement of radiation flux from a hohlraum. In order to obtain a flat response in the photon energy range of 0.1-4 keV, it is found that both the cathode and the filter of the detector can be made of gold. A further improvement on the compound filter can then largely relax the requirement of the calibration x-ray beam. The calibration of the detector, which is carried out on Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility at Institute of High Energy Physics, shows that the detector has a desired flat response in the photon energy range of 0.1-4 keV, with a response flatness smaller than 13%. The detector has been successfully applied in the hohlraum experiment on Shenguang-III prototype laser facility. The radiation temperatures inferred from the detector agree well with those from the diagnostic instrument Dante installed at the same azimuth angle from the hohlraum axis, demonstrating the feasibility of the detector.

Directly driven cryogenic target implosion experiments are performed on the SGIII prototype laser facility. X-ray pinhole images reveal frozen condensation on the sealing film. The influence of the condensation on the delivery of laser energy to the capsule surface is then quantified experimentally. It is found that, with a carefully chosen pre-pulse duration, the influence can be reduced, and the neutron yield is increased by an order of magnitude. Subsequently, the cryogenic layered capsule and cryogenic gas-filled capsule are imploded using 6.5-kJ laser energy. The implosion performance is characterized by the neutron yield, the 2D self-emission images of the in-flight shell, and the primary proton spectrum. The neutron yield is 2 × 107 for the gas-filled capsule and 2.8 × 107 for the layered capsule. The 2D self-emission images of the in-flight shell exhibit significant implosion asymmetry. The energy downshift of the proton spectrum is used to infer the areal density. For the gas-filled capsule, the spectrum is downshifted by 0.1 MeV, yielding an areal density of 1–3 mg/cm2. For the layered capsule, the spectrum is downshifted by 0.5 MeV, yielding an areal density of 4–6 mg/cm2. Improving the implosion symmetry would help to further increase the areal density.

We study shell mix during implosion using a capsule with a Cl-doped gas-shell interface that is also filled with Ar-doped deuterium gas. The Ar and Cl K-shell emissions are recorded with a flat crystal spectrometer. The He-β complex is analyzed to infer the electron temperature and density in the hotspot. Two regions of different hydrodynamic states are observed: a region of Te ∼ 1.2 ± 0.2 keV and ne ∼ (4 ± 0.5) × 1023 cm−3 and another of Te ∼ 0.6 ± 0.2 keV and ne ∼ (4 ± 0.5) × 1022 cm−3 probed by Ar and Cl ions, respectively. The neutron yield was also recorded and found to have reduced by a factor of ten for the Cl-doped capsule. By attributing the degradation of the neutron yield to the enhanced radiation loss due to the presence of mixed Cl ions and using the conservation of hotspot internal energy, the amount of mixed Cl ions is estimated to be ∼1.4 × 1014, corresponding to a 0.1 μm thickness of the initial shell material and a mixing width of about 16 μm.

A novel inversion technique is proposed to unfold core asymmetries at the source with x-ray emission images, which were obtained from imploded surrogate capsules in symmetry diagnostic experiments. The axisymmetrical core emission can be expanded as a Fourier series, with Legendre polynomials and spherical Bessel functions as bases concerned with polar angle and radius, respectively. A least-squares estimator is employed to obtain the unknown coefficients from its two-dimensional image data. The unfolded Legendre coefficients can be further used to test modeling of drive asymmetries in hohlraums. This technique is also demonstrated with a proof-of-principle experiment performed on the Shenguang II laser facility [L. Zunqi et al., Chin. J. Lasers B10, 6 (2001)].