Persistent Identifier
|
doi:10.7910/DVN/APCCNI |
Publication Date
|
2024-02-15 |
Title
| Achieving A Hydrodynamically Equivalent Burning Plasma in Direct-Drive Laser Fusion |
Alternative Title
| publsihed title:"Demonstration of a hydrodynamically equivalent burning plasma in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion" |
Author
| V. Gopalaswamy , C. A. Williams , R. Betti, D. Patel, J. P. Knauer, A. Lees, D. Cao, E. M. Campbell, P. Farmakis, R. Ejaz, K. S. Anderson, R. Epstein, J. Carroll-Nellenbeck , I. V. Igumenshchev, J. A. Marozas , P. B. Radha, A. A. Solodov , C. A. Thomas, K. M. Woo, T. J. B. Collins, S. X. Hu , W. Scullin, D. Turnbull, V. N. Goncharov, K. Churnetski, C. J. Forrest, V. Yu. Glebov, P. V. Heuer, H. McClow, R. C. Shah, C. Stoeckl, W. Theobald, D. H. Edgell, S. Ivancic , M. J. Rosenberg, S. P. Regan, D. Bredesen, C. Fella, M. Koch, R. T. Janezic, M. J. Bonino, D. R. Harding, K. A. Bauer , S. Sampat, L. J. Waxer, M. Labuzeta , S. F. B. Morse , M. Gatu-Johnson , R. D. Petrasso, J. A. Frenje, J. Murray , B. Serrato, D. Guzman, C. Shuldberg , M. Farrell, C. Deeney |
Description
| Focussing laser light onto the surface of a small target filled with deuterium and tritium implodes it and leads to the creation of a hot and dense plasma, in which thermonuclear fusion reactions occur. In order for the plasma to become self-sustaining, the heating of the plasma must be dominated by the energy provided by the fusion reactions—a condition known as a burning plasma. A metric for this is the generalized Lawson parameter, where values above around 0.8 imply a burning plasma. Here, we report on hydro-equivalent scaling of experimental results on the OMEGA laser system and show that these have achieved core conditions that reach a burning plasma when the central part of the plasma, the hotspot, is scaled in size by at least a factor of 3.9 ± 0.10, which would require a driver laser energy of at least 1.7 ± 0.13 MJ. In addition, we hydro-equivalently scale the results to the 2.15 MJ of laser energy available at the National Ignition Facility and find that these implosions reach 86% of the Lawson parameter required for ignition. Our results support direct-drive inertial confinement fusion as a credible approach for achieving thermonuclear ignition and net energy in laser fusion. |
Subject
| Physics |
Keyword
| burning plasma
direct drive
hydrodynamic scaling
inertial confinement fusion
OMEGA Laser Facility |
Notes
| PSFC REPORT PSFC/JA-23-34
This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0003856, the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences under Award Numbers DE-SC0021072, DE-SC0022132 and DE-SC0024381, the University of Rochester and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
If this record does not contain the full text, then the manuscript has been embargoed by the publisher thus restricting open access for 12 to 24 months after publication. |