Low-adiabat rugby hohlraum experiments on the National Ignition Facility: Comparison with high-flux modeling and the potential for gas-wall interpenetration

Rugby-shaped gold hohlraums driven by a nominal low-adiabat laser pulse shape have been tested on the National Ignition Facility. The rugby affords a higher coupling efficiency than a comparably sized cylinder hohlraum or, alternatively, improved drive symmetry and laser beam clearances for a larger hohlraum with similar cylinder wall area and laser energy. A first (large rugby hohlraum) shot at low energy (0.75 MJ) to test laser backscatter resulted in a moderately oblate CH capsule implosion, followed by a high energy shot (1.3 MJ) that gave a highly oblate compressed core according to both time-integrated and –resolved x-ray images. These implosions used low wavelength separation (1.0 A) between the outer and inner cones to provide an alternative platform free of significant cross-beam energy transfer for simplified hohlraum dynamics. Post-shot 2- and 3-D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations using the high-flux model [M. D. Rosen et al., High Energy Density Phys. 7, 180 (2011)], however, give nearly roun...