Physics principles of inertial confinement fusion and US program overview

OA Hurricane, PK Patel, R Betti, DH Froula… - Reviews of Modern …, 2023 - APS
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) has existed as a field of study since the 1970s, but the field
was born out of the Cold War. In the decades since the 1960s, pioneering research …

Direct-drive laser fusion: status, plans and future

EM Campbell, TC Sangster… - … of the Royal …, 2021 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Laser-direct drive (LDD), along with laser indirect (X-ray) drive (LID) and magnetic drive with
pulsed power, is one of the three viable inertial confinement fusion approaches to achieving …

Ion and electron acoustic bursts during anti-parallel magnetic reconnection driven by lasers

S Zhang, A Chien, L Gao, H Ji, EG Blackman, R Follett… - Nature Physics, 2023 - nature.com
Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy in plasma.
Among the numerous candidate mechanisms, ion acoustic instabilities driven by the relative …

Cross-beam energy transfer saturation by ion heating

AM Hansen, KL Nguyen, D Turnbull, BJ Albright… - Physical review …, 2021 - APS
We measure cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) saturation by ion heating in a gas-jet
plasma characterized using Thomson scattering. A wavelength-tunable ultraviolet (UV) …

[HTML][HTML] Validation of heat transport modeling using directly driven beryllium spheres

WA Farmer, C Bruulsema, GF Swadling… - Physics of …, 2020 - pubs.aip.org
Recent experiments involving directly driven beryllium spheres are reported. Plasma
conditions are measured using Thomson scattering with the probe beam pointed 200, 300 …

Direct measurement of the return current instability in a laser-produced plasma

AL Milder, J Zielinski, J Katz, W Rozmus, D Edgell… - Physical Review Letters, 2022 - APS
Measurements were made of the return current instability growth rate, demonstrating its
concurrence with nonlocal transport. Thomson scattering was used to measure a maximum …

[HTML][HTML] Investigation of heat transport using directly driven gold spheres

WA Farmer, MD Rosen, GF Swadling… - Physics of …, 2021 - pubs.aip.org
Recently, heat transport was investigated using a directly driven beryllium sphere [Farmer et
al., Phys. Plasmas 27, 082701 (2020)]. Models that overly restrict heat transport were …

Statistical analysis of non-Maxwellian electron distribution functions measured with angularly resolved Thomson scattering

AL Milder, J Katz, R Boni, JP Palastro, M Sherlock… - Physics of …, 2021 - pubs.aip.org
Angularly resolved Thomson scattering is a novel extension of Thomson scattering, enabling
the measurement of the electron velocity distribution function over many orders of …

Qualitative and quantitative enhancement of parameter estimation for model-based diagnostics using automatic differentiation with an application to inertial fusion

AL Milder, AS Joglekar, W Rozmus… - … Learning: Science and …, 2024 - iopscience.iop.org
Parameter estimation using observables is a fundamental concept in the experimental
sciences. Mathematical models that represent the physical processes can enable …

Self-guiding of long-wave infrared laser pulses mediated by avalanche ionization

D Woodbury, A Goffin, RM Schwartz, J Isaacs… - Physical Review Letters, 2020 - APS
Nonlinear self-guided propagation of intense long-wave infrared (LWIR) laser pulses is of
significant recent interest, as it promises high power transmission without beam breakup and …