Record Details

Demonstration of hot-spot fuel gain exceeding unity in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Demonstration of hot-spot fuel gain exceeding unity in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SJBTHT
 
Creator C. A. Williams   , , R. Betti, , V. Gopalaswamy, J. P. Knauer, C. J. Forrest, A. Lees, R. Ejaz, P. S. Farmakis, D. Cao, P. B. Radha, K. S. Anderson, S. P. Regan, V. Yu Glebov   , R. C. Shah, C. Stoeckl, S. Ivancic, K. Churnetski, R. T. Janezic, C. Fella, M. J. Rosenberg, M. J. Bonino, D. R. Harding, W. T. Shmayda   , J. Carroll-Nellenback   , S. X. Hu, R. Epstein, T. J. B. Collins, C. A. Thomas, I. V. Igumenshchev, V. N. Goncharov, W. Theobald   , K. M. Woo, J. A. Marozas, K. A. Bauer   , S. Sampat, L. J. Waxer, D. Turnbull, P. V. Heuer   , H. McClow, L. Ceurvorst, W. Scullin   , D. H. Edgell, M. Koch, D. Bredesen, M. Gatu Johnson   , J. A. Frenje, R. D. Petrasso, C. Shuldberg   , M. Farrell, J. Murray   , D. Guzman, B. Serrato, S. F. B. Morse   , M. Labuzeta   , C. Deeney, E. M. Campbell
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Irradiating a small capsule containing deuterium and tritium fuel directly with intense laser light causes it to implode, which creates a plasma hot enough to initiate fusion reactions between the fuel nuclei. Here we report on such laser direct-drive experiments and observe that the fusion reactions produce more energy than the amount of energy in the central so-called hot-spot plasma. This condition is identified as having a hot-spot fuel gain greater than unity. A hot-spot fuel gain of around four was previously accomplished at the National Ignition Facility in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments where the capsule is irradiated by X-rays. In that case, up to 1.9 MJ of laser energy was used, but in contrast, our experiments on the OMEGA laser system require as little as 28 kJ. As the hot-spot fuel gain is predicted to grow with laser energy and target size, our work establishes the direct-drive approach to inertial fusion as a promising path towards burning and ignited plasmas in the laboratory. Additionally, we report a record (direct-drive) fusion yield of 0.9 kJ on OMEGA, which we achieved with thin-ice deuterium–tritium liner targets.
 
Subject Physics
direct drive
hot-spot fuel gain
hydrodynamic scaling
inertial confinement fusion
OMEGA Laser Facility
 
Date 2024-02-14