Manufacture of DT-filled, hollow glass microsphere, laser targets

Abstract

The fabrication of highly characterized DT-filled, hollow glass microsphere targets is described. The DT is loaded by gas permeation through the glass walls at 420°C. The DT fill is nondestructively measured by counting the emitted x rays with a proportional counter. The counter system is empirically calibrated by individually crushing microspheres in an ionization chamber. Outer diameters are measured optically with a split-image eyepiece. Wall thicknesses and sphericities are measured by light interference. For a 40-J.L diam microsphere and I-J.L walls, we estimate our best absolute accuracies of measurement to be, o.d., ± 1.6%; wall thickness at any point, ± 10%; overall microsphere sphericity, ± 7%.

Radioactivity and Fusion Energy

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Fabrication of Titanium Doped Hollow Glass Microspheres for Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets by Dried Gel Method

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