Progress in symmetric ICF capsule implosions and wire-array<i>z</i>-pinch source physics for double-pinch-driven hohlraums

Cuneo, M. E.; Vesey, Roger Alan; Bennett, Guy R.; Sinars, Daniel Brian; Stygar, W. A.; Waisman, E.; Porter, J. L.; Rambo, Patrick K.; Smith, I. C.; Lebedev, S. V.; Chittenden, J. P.; Bliss, David E.; Nash, T. J.; Chandler, G. A.; Afeyan, Bedros; Yu, Edmund; Campbell, R. B.; Adams, R. G.; Hanson, D. L.; Mehlhorn, T. A.; Matzen, M. K.

doi:10.1088/0741-3335/48/2/r01

Cited by 82 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 136 publications

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“…The subject is discussed in a review by Cuneo et al [462]. Figure 72 illustrates the conceptual design of Sandia's ZP3 fusion reactor [463,464] based on the vacuum hohlraum.…”

Section: The Vacuum Hohlraummentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the denseZ-pinch

Haines

2011

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

386

184

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The Z-pinch, perhaps the oldest subject in plasma physics, has achieved a remarkable renaissance in recent years, following a few decades of neglect due to its basically unstable MHD character. Using wire arrays, a significant transition at high wire number led to a great improvement in both compression and uniformity of the Z-pinch. Resulting from this the Z-accelerator at Sandia at 20 MA in 100 ns has produced a powerful, short pulse, soft x-ray source >230 TW for 4.5 ns) at a high efficiency of ∼15%. This has applications to inertial confinement fusion. Several hohlraum designs have been tested. The vacuum hohlraum has demonstrated the control of symmetry of irradiation on a capsule, while the dynamic hohlraum at a higher radiation temperature of 230 eV has compressed a capsule from 2 mm to 0.8 mm diameter with a neutron yield >3 × 10 11 thermal DD neutrons, a record for any capsule implosion. World record ion temperatures of >200 keV have recently been measured in a stainless-steel plasma designed for Kα emission at stagnation, due, it was predicted, to ion-viscous heating associated with the dissipation of fast-growing short wavelength nonlinear MHD instabilities. Direct fusion experiments using deuterium gas-puffs have yielded 3.9×10 13 neutrons with only 5% asymmetry, suggesting for the first time a mainly thermal source. The physics of wire-array implosions is a dominant theme. It is concerned with the transformation of wires to liquid-vapour expanding cores; then the generation of a surrounding plasma corona which carries most of the current, with inward flowing low magnetic Reynolds number jets correlated with axial instabilities on each wire; later an almost constant velocity, snowplough-like implosion occurs during which gaps appear in the cores, leading to stagnation on the axis, and the production of the main soft-x-ray pulse. These studies have been pursued also with smaller facilities in other laboratories around the world. At Imperial College, conical and radial wire arrays have led to highly collimated tungsten plasma jets with a Mach number of >20, allowing laboratory astrophysics experiments to be undertaken. These highlights will be underpinned in this review with the basic physics of Z-pinches including stability, kinetic effects, and finally its applications.

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“…The subject is discussed in a review by Cuneo et al [462]. Figure 72 illustrates the conceptual design of Sandia's ZP3 fusion reactor [463,464] based on the vacuum hohlraum.…”

Section: The Vacuum Hohlraummentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the denseZ-pinch

Haines

2011

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

386

184

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The polymeric layers must have a predetermined thickness and a surface finish smoother than 0.1 μm and they must conform perfectly to the glass sphere; the deposition technique is therefore very important [ 114 , 126 , 127 ]. In recent years, laser-fusion programs seem to have moved to consider larger fuel capsules [ 121 , 128 ]; viable ICF targets are represented by spherical shells with diameter 0.5 to 4 mm, wall thickness 50–100 μm, low density (~250 mg/cm 3 ), with interconnected voids (each <1 μm diameter), with extreme sphericity (>99.9%, <50 nm roughness variation), and a high degree of concentricity (>99.0%) [ 129 ]. Fabricating these pellets with so stringent specifications is a big technical challenge, and even more challenging is the fact that they should be produced at massive scale.…”

Section: Applications In the Field Of Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

Glassy Microspheres for Energy Applications

Righini

2018

Micromachines

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Microspheres made of glass, polymer, or crystal material have been largely used in many application areas, extending from paints to lubricants, to cosmetics, biomedicine, optics and photonics, just to mention a few. Here the focus is on the applications of glassy microspheres in the field of energy, namely covering issues related to their use in solar cells, in hydrogen storage, in nuclear fusion, but also as high-temperature insulators or proppants for shale oil and gas recovery. An overview is provided of the fabrication techniques of bulk and hollow microspheres, as well as of the excellent results made possible by the peculiar properties of microspheres. Considerations about their commercial relevance are also added.

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“…In fact, when we superpose our spectrum in figure 18 on that from [31], we observe a very good agreement without even rescaling the absolute fluxes. The experimental points for hν > 2 keV, quoted in [4,31], do indicate the presence of a hard x-ray component with an effective temperature of T r2 ≈ 0.6 keV, whereas the main emission is reasonably well approximated by a blackbody spectrum with T r1 ≈ 165 eV [31]. Note that, according to our results, particularly in the region hν = 3-6 keV, the spectral slope appears to be significantly flattened as compared to the corresponding Planckian fit of the hard component -which implies complications for any direct interpretation of the Planckianfit temperature, inferred from the experimental data in this region.…”

Section: Case Amentioning

confidence: 99%

One-dimensional study of the radiation-dominated implosion of a cylindrical tungsten plasma column

Basko

Sasorov

Murakami

et al. 2012

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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Abstract. Spectral properties of the x-ray pulses, generated by perfectly uniform cylindrical implosions of tungsten plasma with parameters typical of wire array zpinches, are investigated under the simplifying assumption that the final stage of the kinetic-to-radiant energy conversion is not affected by the magnetic field. The x-ray emission is shown to be generated within a narrow (sub-micron) radiationdominated stagnation shock front with a "supercritical" amplitude. The structure of the stagnation shock is investigated by using two independent radiation-hydrodynamics codes, and by constructing an approximate analytical model. The x-ray spectra are calculated for two values of the plasma column mass, 0.3 mg cm −1 and 6 mg cm −1 , with a newly developed two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code RALEF-2D. The hard component of the spectrum (with a blackbody-fit temperature of 0.5-0.6 keV for the 6-mg cm −1 mass) originates from a narrow peak of the electron temperature inside the stagnation shock. The softer main component emerges from an extended halo, where the primary shock radiation is reemitted by colder layers of the imploding plasma. Our calculated x-ray spectrum for the 6-mg cm −1 tungsten column agrees well with the published Sandia experimental data (Foord et al 2004 Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 055002).

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Progress in symmetric ICF capsule implosions and wire-arrayz-pinch source physics for double-pinch-driven hohlraums

Cited by 82 publications

References 136 publications

A review of the denseZ-pinch

A review of the denseZ-pinch

Glassy Microspheres for Energy Applications

One-dimensional study of the radiation-dominated implosion of a cylindrical tungsten plasma column

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