Observation of Hydrodynamic Flows in Imploding Fusion Plasmas on the National Ignition Facility
- 13 September 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 127 (12), 125001
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.125001
Abstract
Inertial confinement fusion implosions designed to have minimal fluid motion at peak compression often show significant linear flows in the laboratory, attributable per simulations to percent-level imbalances in the laser drive illumination symmetry. We present experimental results which intentionally varied the mode 1 drive imbalance by up to 4% to test hydrodynamic predictions of flows and the resultant imploded core asymmetries and performance, as measured by a combination of DT neutron spectroscopy and high-resolution x-ray core imaging. Neutron yields decrease by up to 50%, and anisotropic neutron Doppler broadening increases by 20%, in agreement with simulations. Furthermore, a tracer jet from the capsule fill-tube perturbation that is entrained by the hot-spot flow confirms the average flow speeds deduced from neutron spectroscopy.Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AC52-07NA27344)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- United States Government
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