Direct drive acceleration of planar targets with the Nike KrF laser

Authors
Pawley, CJ Sethian, JD Bodner, SE Gerber, KA Lehmberg, RH McLean, EA Mostovych, AN Obenschain, SP Serlin, V Stamper, JA Colombant, D Dahlburg, JP Schmitt, AJ Gardner, JH Aglitskiy, Y Chan, Y Deniz, AV Lehecka, T Brown, J Seely, J Klapisch, M
Citation
Cj. Pawley et al., Direct drive acceleration of planar targets with the Nike KrF laser, FUSION ENG, 44, 1999, pp. 171-174
Citations number
4
Categorie Soggetti
Nuclear Emgineering
Journal title
FUSION ENGINEERING AND DESIGN
ISSN journal
09203796 → ACNP
Volume
44
Year of publication
1999
Pages
171 - 174
Database
ISI
SICI code
0920-3796(199902)44:<171:DDAOPT>2.0.ZU;2-Y
Abstract
Nike is a multi-kilojoule KrF laser with very high beam uniformity (Delta I /I < 0.2% with all 36 overlapped beams), and the capability to accelerate r elatively thick targets on a low adiabat under conditions scalable to direc t drive ICF. In a first set of experiments we determined the effect of the imprinting by varying the uniformity of the foot of the laser pulse and mea suring the growth of the subsequent Rayleigh-Taylor instability. We found t hat the lower the imprint, the longer the mass modulations take to reach a given level. This is in quantitative agreement with our 2-D hydrodynamics s imulations. The results are promising for direct drive with a very uniform laser. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.