G. Huser

Glow discharge polymer hydrocarbon (GDP-CH) is used as the ablator material in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsules for the Laser Mégajoule and National Ignition Facility. Due to its fabrication process, GDP-CH chemical composition and structure differ from commercially available plastics and detailed knowledge of its properties in the warm dense matter regime is needed to achieve accurate design of ICF capsules. First-principles ab initio simulations of the GDP-CH principal Hugoniot up to 8 Mbar were performed using the quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) code abinit and showed that atomic bond dissociation has an effect on the compressibility. Results from these simulations are used to parametrize a quantum semiempirical model in order to generate a tabulated equation of state that includes dissociation. Hugoniot measurements obtained from an experiment conducted at the LULI2000 laser facility confirm QMD simulations as well as EOS modeling. We conclude by showing the EOS model influence on shock timing in a hydrodynamic simulation.

Pressure, density, temperature, and reflectivity measurements along the principal Hugoniot of Ge-doped plastics used in Inertial Confinement Fusion capsules surrogates were obtained to pressures reaching up to 7 Mbar and compared to Quotidian Equation of State models. The experiment was performed using the GEKKO XII laser at the Institute of Laser Engineering at Osaka University in Japan. High precision measurements of pressure and density were obtained using a quartz standard and found to be in good agreement with theoretical Hugoniot curves. Modeling of reflectivity measurements show that shocked samples can be described as poor metals and that mean ionization calculated within the frame of QEOS is overestimated. Similarly, shock temperatures were found to be below theoretical Hugoniot curves.

A laminated ablator is explored as an alternative concept for stabilizing the ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability which develops in inertial fusion targets. Experiments measuring the growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability of laminated planar foils are reported. Consistent with both theory and simulations, a significant reduction of the perturbation growth is experimentally observed for laminated ablators in comparison to what is observed for classical uniform ablators. Such an enhanced hydrodynamic stability opens opportunities for the design of high-gain inertial fusion targets.

Journal de Physique IV, Journal de Physique Archives représente une mine d informations facile à consulter sur la manière dont la physique a été publiée depuis 1872.