Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion experiments performed at Sandia's Z facility have demonstrated significant thermonuclear fusion neutron yields (∼1012 DD neutrons) from multi-keV deuterium plasmas inertially confined by slow (∼10 cm/μs), stable, cylindrical implosions. Effective magnetic confinement of charged fusion reactants and products is signaled by high secondary DT neutron yields above 1010. Analysis of extensive power, imaging, and spectroscopic x-ray measurements provides a detailed picture of ∼3 keV temperatures, 0.3 g/cm3 densities, gradients, and mix in the fuel and liner over the 1-2 ns stagnation duration.
In this study, the magnetized liner inertial fusion concept [S. A. Slutz et al., Phys. Plasmas17, 056303 (2010)] utilizes a magnetic field and laser heating to relax the pressure requirements of inertial confinement fusion. The first experiments to test the concept [M. R. Gomez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 155003 (2014)] were conducted utilizing the 19 MA, 100 ns Z machine, the 2.5 kJ, 1 TW Z Beamlet laser, and the 10 T Applied B-field on Z system. Despite an estimated implosion velocity of only 70 km/s in these experiments, electron and ion temperatures at stagnation were as high as 3 keV, and thermonuclear deuterium-deuterium neutron yields up to 2 × 1012 have been produced. X-ray emission from the fuel at stagnation had widths ranging from 50 to 110 μm over a roughly 80% of the axial extent of the target (6–8 mm) and lasted approximately 2 ns. X-ray yields from these experiments are consistent with a stagnation density of the hot fuel equal to 0.2–0.4 g/cm3. In these experiments, up to 5 ×1010 secondary deuterium-tritium neutrons were produced. Given that the areal density of the plasma was approximately 1–2 mg/cm2, this indicates the stagnation plasma was significantly magnetized, which is consistent with the anisotropy observed in the deuterium-tritium neutron spectra. Control experiments where the laser and/or magnetic field were not utilized failed to produce stagnation temperatures greater than 1 keV and primary deuterium-deuterium yields greater than 1010. An additional control experiment where the fuel contained a sufficient dopant fraction to substantially increase radiative losses also failed to produce a relevant stagnation temperature. The results of these experiments are consistent with a thermonuclear neutron source.
The standard approaches to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) rely on implosion velocities greater than 300 km/s and spherical convergence to achieve the high fuel temperatures (T > 4 keV) and areal densities (ρr > 0.3 g/cm2) required for ignition1. Such high velocities are achieved by heating the outside surface of a spherical capsuleeither directly with a large number of laser beams (Direct Drive) or with x-rays generated within a hohlraum (Indirect Drive). A much more energetically efficient approach is to use the magnetic pressure generated by a pulsed power machine to directly drive an implosion. In this approach 5-10% of the stored energy can be converted to the implosion of a metal tube generally referred to as a “liner”. However, the implosion velocity is not very high 70-100 km/s and the convergence is cylindrical (rather than spherical) making it more difficult to achieve the high temperatures and areal densities needed for ignition.
This Letter presents results from the first fully integrated experiments testing the magnetized liner inertial fusion concept [S.A. Slutz et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)], in which a cylinder of deuterium gas with a preimposed axial magnetic field of 10 T is heated by Z beamlet, a 2.5 kJ, 1 TW laser, and magnetically imploded by a 19 MA current with 100 ns rise time on the Z facility. Despite a predicted peak implosion velocity of only 70 km/s, the fuel reaches a stagnation temperature of approximately 3 keV, with Te ≈ Ti, and produces up to 2e12 thermonuclear DD neutrons. In this study, X-ray emission indicates a hot fuel region with full width at half maximum ranging from 60 to 120 μm over a 6 mm height and lasting approximately 2 ns. The number of secondary deuterium-tritium neutrons observed was greater than 1010, indicating significant fuel magnetization given that the estimated radial areal density of the plasma is only 2 mg/cm2.
We present a general methodology to determine the diagnostic sensitivity that is directly applicable to neutron-activation diagnostics fielded on a wide variety of neutron-producing experiments, which include inertial-confinement fusion (ICF), dense plasma focus, and ion beam-driven concepts. This approach includes a combination of several effects: (1) non-isotropic neutron emission; (2) the 1/r2 decrease in neutron fluence in the activation material; (3) the spatially distributed neutron scattering, attenuation, and energy losses due to the fielding environment and activation material itself; and (4) temporally varying neutron emission. As an example, we describe the copper-activation diagnostic used to measure secondary deuterium-tritium fusion-neutron yields on ICF experiments conducted on the pulsed-power Z Accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories. Using this methodology along with results from absolute calibrations and Monte Carlo simulations, we find that for the diagnostic configuration on Z, the diagnostic sensitivity is 0.037% ± 17% counts/neutron per cm2 and is ~ 40% less sensitive than it would be in an ideal geometry due to neutron attenuation, scattering, and energy-loss effects.
There are several machines in this country that produce short bursts of neutrons for various applications. A few examples are the Zmachine, operated by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM; the OMEGA Laser Facility at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY; and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) operated by the Department of Energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. They all incorporate neutron time of flight (nTOF) detectors which measure neutron yield, and the shapes of the waveforms from these detectors contain germane information about the plasma conditions that produce the neutrons. However, the signals can also be %E2%80%9Cclouded%E2%80%9D by a certain fraction of neutrons that scatter off structural components and also arrive at the detectors, thereby making analysis of the plasma conditions more difficult. These detectors operate in current mode - i.e., they have no discrimination, and all the photomultiplier anode charges are integrated rather than counted individually as they are in single event counting. Up to now, there has not been a method for modeling an nTOF detector operating in current mode. MCNPPoliMiwas developed in 2002 to simulate neutron and gammaray detection in a plastic scintillator, which produces a collision data output table about each neutron and photon interaction occurring within the scintillator; however, the postprocessing code which accompanies MCNPPoliMi assumes a detector operating in singleevent counting mode and not current mode. Therefore, the idea for this work had been born: could a new postprocessing code be written to simulate an nTOF detector operating in current mode? And if so, could this process be used to address such issues as the impact of neutron scattering on the primary signal? Also, could it possibly even identify sources of scattering (i.e., structural materials) that could be removed or modified to produce %E2%80%9Ccleaner%E2%80%9D neutron signals? This process was first developed and then applied to the axial neutron time of flight detectors at the ZFacility mentioned above. First, MCNPPoliMi was used to model relevant portions of the facility between the source and the detector locations. To obtain useful statistics, variance reduction was utilized. Then, the resulting collision output table produced by MCNPPoliMi was further analyzed by a MATLAB postprocessing code. This converted the energy deposited by neutron and photon interactions in the plastic scintillator (i.e., nTOF detector) into light output, in units of MeVee%D1%84 (electron equivalent) vs time. The time response of the detector was then folded into the signal via another MATLAB code. The simulated response was then compared with experimental data and shown to be in good agreement. To address the issue of neutron scattering, an %E2%80%9CIdeal Case,%E2%80%9D (i.e., a plastic scintillator was placed at the same distance from the source for each detector location) with no structural components in the problem. This was done to produce as %E2%80%9Cpure%E2%80%9D a neutron signal as possible. The simulated waveform from this %E2%80%9CIdeal Case%E2%80%9D was then compared with the simulated data from the %E2%80%9CFull Scale%E2%80%9D geometry (i.e., the detector at the same location, but with all the structural materials now included). The %E2%80%9CIdeal Case%E2%80%9D was subtracted from the %E2%80%9CFull Scale%E2%80%9D geometry case, and this was determined to be the contribution due to scattering. The time response was deconvolved out of the empirical data, and the contribution due to scattering was then subtracted out of it. A transformation was then made from dN/dt to dN/dE to obtain neutron spectra at two different detector locations.
Experiments have been conducted at Sandia National Laboratories' RITS-6 accelerator facility [1] (operating at 7.5 MV and 180 kA) investigating plasma formation and propagation in relativistic electron beam diodes used for flash x-ray radiography. High resolution, visible and ultraviolet spectra were collected in the anode-cathode (A-K) vacuum gap of the Self-Magnetic Pinch (SMP) diode [2-4]. Time and space resolved spectra are compared with time-dependent, collisional-radiative (CR) calculations [5-7] and Lsp, hybrid particle-in-cell code simulations [8,9]. Results indicate the presence of a dense (>1x1017cm-3), low temperature (few eV), on-axis plasma, composed of hydrocarbon and metal ion species, which expands at a rate of several cm/s from the anode to the cathode. In addition, cathode plasmas are observed which extend several millimeters into the A-K gap [10]. It is believed that the interaction of these electrode plasmas cause premature impedance collapse of the diode and subsequent reduction in the total radiation output. Diagnostics include high speed imaging and spectroscopy using nanosecond gated ICCD cameras, streak cameras, and photodiode arrays.