Understanding the deficiency in inertial confinement fusion hohlraum x-ray flux predictions using experiments at the National Ignition Facility.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39161029.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.110.L013201.
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Abstract
The predicted implosion performance of deuterium-tritium fuel capsules in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments relies on precise calculations of the x-ray drive in laser-heated cavities (hohlraums). This requires accurate, spectrally dependent simulations of laser to x-ray conversion efficiencies and x-ray absorption losses to the hohlraum wall. A set of National Ignition Facility experiments have identified a cause for the long-standing hohlraum "drive deficit" as the overprediction of gold emission at ∼2.5 keV in nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium coronal plasma regions within the hohlraum. Reducing the emission and absorption opacity in this spectral region by ∼20% brings simulations into agreement with measured x-ray fluxes and spectra.