Publications Details

Demonstration of improved laser preheat with a cryogenically cooled magnetized liner inertial fusion platform

Harvey-Thompson, Adam J.; Geissel, Matthias G.; Crabtree, Jerry A.; Weis, Matthew R.; Gomez, Matthew R.; Fein, Jeffrey R.; Laros, James H.; Ampleford, David A.; Awe, Thomas J.; Chandler, Gordon A.; Hansen, Stephanie B.; Jennings, Christopher A.; Knapp, Patrick K.; Kimmel, Mark W.; Mangan, Michael M.; Peterson, Kyle J.; Porter, John L.; Rochau, G.A.; Ruiz, Daniel E.; Hanson, Joseph C.; Harding, Eric H.; Perea, L.; Robertson, Grafton K.; Shores, Jonathon S.; Slutz, Stephen A.; Smith, G.E.; Speas, Christopher S.; Yager-Elorriaga, David A.; York, Adam Y.

We report on progress implementing and testing cryogenically cooled platforms for Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) experiments. Two cryogenically cooled experimental platforms were developed: an integrated platform fielded on the Z pulsed power generator that combines magnetization, laser preheat, and pulsed-power-driven fuel compression and a laser-only platform in a separate chamber that enables measurements of the laser preheat energy using shadowgraphy measurements. The laser-only experiments suggest that ∼89% ± 10% of the incident energy is coupled to the fuel in cooled targets across the energy range tested, significantly higher than previous warm experiments that achieved at most 67% coupling and in line with simulation predictions. The laser preheat configuration was applied to a cryogenically cooled integrated experiment that used a novel cryostat configuration that cooled the MagLIF liner from both ends. The integrated experiment, z3576, coupled 2.32 ± 0.25 kJ preheat energy to the fuel, the highest to-date, demonstrated excellent temperature control and nominal current delivery, and produced one of the highest pressure stagnations as determined by a Bayesian analysis of the data.