Ignition tuning for the National Ignition Campaign

¹ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 5508, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
² Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, NY, USA
³ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
⁴ Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM, USA
⁵ Plasma Science and Fusion Center, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
⁶ General Atomics, San Diego, CA, USA

^a e-mail: landen1@llnl.gov

Published online: 15 November 2013

Abstract

The overall goal of the indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion [1] tuning campaigns [2] is to maximize the probability of ignition by experimentally correcting for likely residual uncertainties in the implosion and hohlraum physics [3] used in our radiation-hydrodynamic computational models, and by checking for and resolving unexpected shot-to-shot variability in performance [4]. This has been started successfully using a variety of surrogate capsules that set key laser, hohlraum and capsule parameters to maximize ignition capsule implosion velocity, while minimizing fuel adiabat, core shape asymmetry and ablator-fuel mix.