New polymer target-shell properties and characterizations

A method for characterizing ICF target shells is presented, based on measurement of the gas released from a single shell into a small volume. It utilizes cryogenic permeation systems developed in connection with our work on ICF targets containing nuclear spin-polarized deuterium. Permeation rates for polystyrene and parylene-coated-polystyrene shells are measured at temperatures from 350K down to 180K. Burst or implosion pressure can be determined over a full temperature range down to 20K. Shell temperature is calculated from its gas leakage rate, calibrated by permeation measurements over the temperature range. Lag of shell temperature compared with sample-chamber temperature during warming of the latter is attributed to the weakness of the thermal link provided by both radiative heat transfer and free molecular conduction with small accommodation coefficients for helium and deuterium gas at the structure to which the shell is conductively linked, or at the surface of a conductively isolated shell. Quantification of this lag can provide a measure of atomic scale roughness of the shell outer surface. Also presented are reversible pre-rupture leakage phenomena for polystyrene and parylene-coated-polystyrene shells