Published August 19, 2002 | Version v1
Journal article

Shell mix in the compressed core of spherical implosions

  • 1. Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
  • 2. Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (United States)
  • 3. Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
  • 4. Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623-1299 (United States)

Description

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability in its highly nonlinear, turbulent stage causes atomic-scale mixing of the shell material with the fuel in the compressed core of inertial-confinement fusion targets. The density of shell material mixed into the outer core of direct-drive plastic-shell spherical-target implosions on the 60-beam, OMEGA laser system is estimated to be 3.4(±1.2) g/cm3 from time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy, charged-particle spectroscopy, and core x-ray images. The estimated fuel density, 3.6(±1) g/cm3, accounts for only ∼50% of the neutron-burn-averaged electron density, ne=2.2(±0.4)x1024 cm-3

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
89
Journal Issue
8
Journal Page Range
p. 085003-085003.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2002 The American Physical Society