INDIRECTLY DRIVEN, HIGH CONVERGENCE INERTIAL CONFINEMENT FUSION IMPLOSIONS

A series of high convergence, indirectly driven implosions has been do ne with the Nova Laser Fusion facility. These implosions were well cha racterized by a variety of measurements; computer models are in good a greement. The imploded fuel areal density was measured using a techniq ue based on secondary neutron spectroscopy. At capsule convergences of 24:1, comparable to what is required for the hot spot of ignition sca le capsules, these capsules achieved fuel densities of 19 g/cm(3). Ind ependent measurements of density, burn duration, and ion temperature g ave nT theta = 1.7 +/- 0.9 X 10(14) keV s/cm(3).