DOE OSTI · 3017790
First indirectly driven liquid-DT filled double shell implosions at the National Ignition Facility
Abstract
Double shell implosions aim to explore material mixing under fusion conditions in a volume burn geometry using high-Z metal pushers. High-Z pushers are more compressible than low-Z pushers enabling high stagnation pressure which reduces the required implosion speed while maintaining a low pusher adiabat despite strong shock heating. Additionally, the use of a small fuel mass reduces the fuel internal energy required for ignition, thus achieving stable platforms with reasonable fusion output to conduct controlled experiments. These factors make volume burn in a double shell implosion highly promising. Recently, a series of liquid-DT filled, indirectly driven, double shell implosions were conducted at the National Ignition Facility with laser drives reaching up to 1.5 MJ. These experiments achieved a maximum DT neutron yield of 1.67 × 10 14 (yield—479 J), DT ion temperature of 2.6 keV, fuel areal density (ρR) of 0.15 g/cm 2 , and stagnation pressure of 79 Gbar. Over the course of these shots, the DT neutron yield has increased by an order of magnitude largely from improved mitigation of outer shell assembly joint driven instability growth using thicker gold plating at the assembly joint. Further performance improvements are expected by enhancing outer-to-inner shell kinetic energy transfer and refined mitigation of degradations from engineering features such as the outer shell joint, fill tube, and surface roughness.
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Palaniyappan, Sasikumar [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000163771206), Loomis, Eric Nicholas [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000320951383), Negussie, Sara Danielle [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0009000038126889), Sauppe, Joshua Paul [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000215071595), Scott, Ryan Lauritz [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0009000276205195), Robey III, Harry F. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000151698283), Christiansen, Nikolaus Scott [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000327472975), Donovan, Patrick Mark [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)], Wong, Chun-Shang [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000226987208), Kot, Lynn [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000246037971), Patterson, Brian M. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000192447376), Schmidt, Derek William [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000269690973), Quintana, Theresa E. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271713660), Stringfield, Samuel Justus [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0009000796457935), Freeman, Matthew Stouten [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000234960419), Durocher, Mora [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000321690306), Meaney, Kevin Daniel [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000311427360), Montgomery, David S. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000223556242), Daughton, William Scott [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000310517559), Rasmus, Alexander Martin [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000193001034), Mohamed, Zaarah Lyla [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000170113922), Desjardins, Tiffany [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000153609168), Adrian, Patrick John [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000186821480), Huff, Margaret Faye [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000234174565), Hayes-Sterbenz, Anna Catherine [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000262350984), Wetherton, Blake Alastair [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000327237190), Kuczek, John Joseph [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000311229778), Wolfe, Bradley Thomas [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000268301614), Haines, Brian Michael [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000238897074), Wilde, Carl Huerstel [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000307936621), Danly, Christopher Russell [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000293668258), Meyerhofer, David Dietrich [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000209041250), Stark, David James [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000203642733), Lonardoni, Diego [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000169568989), Saavedra, Gary Joseph [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000287871671), Rusev, Gencho Y. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000175631518), Geppert-Kleinrath, Hermann [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:000000029350144X), Sagert, Irina [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000214870360), Dowd, James Franklyn [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)], Merritt, Elizabeth Catherine [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000290260070), Keiter, Paul Arthur [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000153537483), Dwyer, Robert Harrison [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000188312145), Lester, Ryan Stuart [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000245883690), Sacks, Ryan Foster [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000199711846), Goodarzi, Saba [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:000000018556489X), Fatherley, Valerie E. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000164279555), Jorgenson, Harold Justin [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:000000021700410X), Geppert-Kleinrath, Verena [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000268695772), Kim, Yong Ho [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000150020964), Kline, John L. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000222719919), Satsangi, Ann Jones [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0009000539550418), Smidt, Joseph Michael [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000275273674), Nikroo, A. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000288550378), Briggs, T. M. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Kroll, J. J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Choate, C. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Roskopf, N. T. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000832598920), Hash, N. L. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000384675426), Orsi, N. L. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Bhandarkar, S. D. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Crippen, J. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000264438365), Huang, H. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000422175597), Murray, J. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000180264174), Ratledge, M. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)], Santana, R. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)], Sequoia, K. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000914846529), Shuldberg, C. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000297605991), Sweet, W. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000609097007), Xu, H. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000460486759). 2025-10-07. First indirectly driven liquid-DT filled double shell implosions at the National Ignition Facility. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0271552
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