Role of hot-electron preheating in the compression of direct-drive imploding targets with cryogenic D2 ablators.
The compression of direct-drive, spherical implosions is studied using cryogenic D2 targets on the 60-beam, 351-nm OMEGA laser with intensities ranging from approximately 3x10(14) to approximately 1x10(15) W/cm2. The hard-x-ray signal from hot electrons generated by laser-plasma instabilities increases with laser intensity, while the areal density decreases. Mitigating hot-electron production, by reducing the laser intensity to approximately 3x10(14) W/cm2, results in areal density of the order of approximately 140 mg/cm2, in good agreement with 1D simulations. These results will be considered in future direct-drive-ignition designs.
Smalyuk
V A
VA
Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623-1299, USA.
Shvarts
D
D
Betti
R
R
Delettrez
J A
JA
Edgell
D H
DH
Glebov
V Yu
VY
Goncharov
V N
VN
McCrory
R L
RL
Meyerhofer
D D
DD
Radha
P B
PB
Regan
S P
SP
Sangster
T C
TC
Seka
W
W
Skupsky
S
S
Stoeckl
C
C
Yaakobi
B
B
Frenje
J A
JA
Li
C K
CK
Petrasso
R D
RD
Séguin
F H
FH