Abstract Obtaining a burning plasma is a critical step towards self-sustaining fusion energy 1 . A burning plasma is one in which the fusion reactions themselves are the primary source of heating in the plasma, which is necessary to sustain and propagate the burn, enabling high energy gain. After decades of fusion research, here we achieve a burning-plasma state in the laboratory. These experiments were conducted at the US National Ignition Facility, a laser facility delivering up to 1.9 megajoules of energy in pulses with peak powers up to 500 terawatts. We use the lasers to generate X-rays in a radiation cavity to indirectly drive a fuel-containing capsule via the X-ray ablation pressure, which results in the implosion process compressing and heating the fuel via mechanical work. The burning-plasma state was created using a strategy to increase the spatial scale of the capsule 2,3 through two different implosion concepts 4–7 . These experiments show fusion self-heating in excess of the mechanical work injected into the implosions, satisfying several burning-plasma metrics 3,8 . Additionally, we describe a subset of experiments that appear to have crossed the static self-heating boundary, where fusion heating surpasses the energy losses from radiation and conduction. These results provide an opportunity to study α-particle-dominated plasmas and burning-plasma physics in the laboratory.
Recent experimental results using the “high foot” pulse shape for inertial confinement fusion ignition experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [Moses et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 041006 (2009)] have shown encouraging progress compared to earlier “low foot” experiments. These results strongly suggest that controlling ablation front instability growth can significantly improve implosion performance even in the presence of persistent, large, low-mode distortions. Simultaneously, hydrodynamic growth radiography experiments have confirmed that ablation front instability growth is being modeled fairly well in NIF experiments. It is timely then to combine these two results and ask how current ignition pulse shapes could be modified to improve one-dimensional implosion performance while maintaining the stability properties demonstrated with the high foot. This paper presents such a survey of pulse shapes intermediate between the low and high foot extremes in search of an intermediate foot optimum. Of the design space surveyed, it is found that a higher picket version of the low foot pulse shape shows the most promise for improved compression without loss of stability.
The University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics has been imploding thick cryogenic targets for six years. Improvements in the Cryogenic Target Handling System and the ability to accurately design laser pulse shapes that properly time shocks and minimize electron preheat, produced high fuel areal densities in deuterium cryogenic targets (202±7 mg/cm2). The areal density was inferred from the energy loss of secondary protons in the fuel (D2) shell. Targets were driven on a low final adiabat (α = 2) employing techniques to radially grade the adiabat (the highest adiabat at the ablation surface). The ice layer meets the target-design toughness specification for DT ice of 1-μm rms (all modes), while D2 ice layers average 3.0-μm-rms roughness. The implosion experiments and the improvements in the quality and understanding of cryogenic targets are presented.
The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) growth of 3D broadband nonuniformities was measured using x-ray radiography in spherical plastic shells accelerated by laser light at an intensity of $\ensuremath{\sim}2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{14}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. The 20- and $24\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$-thick spherical shells were imploded with 54 beams on the OMEGA laser system. The shells contained diagnostic openings for backlighter x rays used to image shell modulations. The measured shell trajectories and modulation RT growth were in fair agreement with 2D hydro simulations during the acceleration phase of the implosions with convergence ratios of up to $\ensuremath{\sim}2.2$. Since the ignition designs rely on these simulations, improvements in the numerical codes will be implemented to achieve better agreement with experiments.
Fusion targets imploded on the National Ignition Facility are subject to hydrodynamic instabilities. These have generally been assumed to be seeded primarily by surface roughness, as existing work had suggested that internal inhomogeneity was small enough not to contribute significantly. New simulations presented here examine this in more detail, and consider modulations in internal oxygen content in CH plastic ablators. The oxygen is configured in a way motivated by measurement of oxygen in the shells. We find that plausible oxygen nonuniformity, motivated by target characterization experiments, seeds instability growth that is 3–5× bigger than expected from surface roughness. Pertinent existing capsule characterization is discussed, which suggests the presence of internal modulations that could be oxygen at levels large enough to be the dominant seed for hydrodynamic instability growth. Oxygen-seeded growth is smaller for implosions driven by high-foot pulse shapes, consistent with the performance improvement seen with these pulse shapes. Growth is somewhat smaller for planned future pulse shapes that were optimized to minimize growth of surface ripples. A possible modified specification for oxygen modulations is discussed, which is about 1/5 of the current requirement.
