scholarly journals Petawatt class lasers worldwide

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Danson ◽  
David Hillier ◽  
Nicholas Hopps ◽  
David Neely
Keyword(s):  
Generation X ◽  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Confinement Fusion

The use of ultra-high intensity laser beams to achieve extreme material states in the laboratory has become almost routine with the development of the petawatt laser. Petawatt class lasers have been constructed for specific research activities, including particle acceleration, inertial confinement fusion and radiation therapy, and for secondary source generation (x-rays, electrons, protons, neutrons and ions). They are also now routinely coupled, and synchronized, to other large scale facilities including megajoule scale lasers, ion and electron accelerators, x-ray sources and z-pinches. The authors of this paper have tried to compile a comprehensive overview of the current status of petawatt class lasers worldwide. The definition of ‘petawatt class’ in this context is a laser that delivers ${>}200~\text{TW}$ .

scholarly journals Petawatt and exawatt class lasers worldwide

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin N. Danson ◽  
Constantin Haefner ◽  
Jake Bromage ◽  
Thomas Butcher ◽  
Jean-Christophe F. Chanteloup ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Power ◽  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Global Status ◽  
Under Construction

In the 2015 review paper ‘Petawatt Class Lasers Worldwide’ a comprehensive overview of the current status of high-power facilities of ${>}200~\text{TW}$ was presented. This was largely based on facility specifications, with some description of their uses, for instance in fundamental ultra-high-intensity interactions, secondary source generation, and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). With the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Professors Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou for the development of the technique of chirped pulse amplification (CPA), which made these lasers possible, we celebrate by providing a comprehensive update of the current status of ultra-high-power lasers and demonstrate how the technology has developed. We are now in the era of multi-petawatt facilities coming online, with 100 PW lasers being proposed and even under construction. In addition to this there is a pull towards development of industrial and multi-disciplinary applications, which demands much higher repetition rates, delivering high-average powers with higher efficiencies and the use of alternative wavelengths: mid-IR facilities. So apart from a comprehensive update of the current global status, we want to look at what technologies are to be deployed to get to these new regimes, and some of the critical issues facing their development.

W and B4C Coatings for Nuclear Fusion Reactors

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Cavasin ◽  
T. Brzezinski ◽  
S. Grenier ◽  
M. Smagorinski ◽  
P. Tsantrizos
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Nuclear Fusion ◽  
Energy Levels ◽  
High Hardness ◽  
Fusion Reactors ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
X Rays ◽  
First Wall ◽  
Term Operation ◽  
Confinement Fusion

Abstract The development of nuclear fusion reactors is presently considered to be the only possible answer to the world's increasing demand for energy, while respecting the environment. Nuclear fusion devices may be broadly divided into two main groups with distinctively different characteristics: magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) reactors. Although the two nuclear fusion technologies show similarities in energy levels (as high as 3 J/cm2) and type of environment (high temperature plasmas) to be contained, the materials of choice for the protective shields (first wall in the ICF and deflectors in the MCF) differ significantly. In ICF reactors, multiple laser beams are used to ignite the fuel in single pulses. This process exposes the first wall to microshrapnel, unconverted light, x-rays, and neutrons. B4C is a low Z material that offers high depth x-ray absorption to minimize surface heating, is not activated by neutrons (will not become radioactive), and offers high hardness and vapour temperature. The long term operation envisioned within MCF reactors, where a continuous nuclear fusion of the fuel is sustained within the confinement of a magnetic field, favours the use of high Z materials, such as W, to protect the plasma exposed deflectors. The reason is a lower erosion rate and a shorter ionization distance in the plasma, which favours the redeposition of the sputtered atoms, both resulting in a lower contamination of the plasma. The production of the first wall and the deflector shields using solid B,C and W materials respectively, is obviously unthinkable. However, ProTeC has developed high density coatings for both ICF and MCF nuclear fusion reactors. W coatings with less then 2% porosity have been produced for both, the Tokamac MCF reactor and its Toroid Fueler. The toroid fueler is a plasma generating device designed to accelerate particles and inject them into the centre of the operating fusion reactor in order to refuel. For the application in an ICF reactor, B4C coatings exhibiting porosity levels below 3% with a hardness above 2500 HV have been deposited directly onto Al substrate. Properties such as outgassing, resistance to erosion and shrapnel, and the influence of x-rays have been studied and showed exceptional results.

scholarly journals Recent Advances in Atomic Modeling

1990 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
W. H. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Accretion Disks ◽  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Collisional Excitation ◽  
Laboratory Plasma ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Laboratory Plasmas ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Solar Plasmas

AbstractPrecision spectroscopy of solar plasmas has historically been the goad for advances in calculating the atomic physics and dynamics of highly ionized atoms. Recent efforts to understand the laboratory plasmas associated with magnetic and inertial confinement fusion, and with X-ray laser research, have played a similar role. Developments spurred by laboratory plasma research are applicable to the modeling of high-resolution spectra from both solar and cosmic X-ray sources, such as the photo-ionized plasmas associated with accretion disks. Three of these developments in large scale atomic modeling are reviewed: a new method for calculating large arrays of collisional excitation rates, a sum rule based method for extending collisional-radiative models and modeling the effects of autoionizing resonances, and a detailed level accounting calculation of resonant excitation rates in FeXVII.

Obstructed View Factor Calculations for Multiple Obstructions in Closed Cavities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiaz Mahmood ◽  
Huasi Hu
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Surface Element ◽  
View Factor ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Indirect Drive ◽  
Fortran 90 ◽  
Summation Rule ◽  
Effect Method

The inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program has been mainly concentrating on the indirect drive approach for the last three decades, due to relaxed requirements on driver-beam uniformity and reduced sensitivity to hydrodynamic instabilities. The optimal designs are important for maximum conversion of driving energy to X-rays, and finally, symmetrical irradiation of the capsule. The view factor (VF) evaluation is an important parameter providing significant radiation heat transport information in specific geometries. The present study is aimed at the VF calculations for closed cavities. The VF calculations include the case of energy transfer from one infinitesimal surface element of the enclosure to other similar infinitesimal surface elements of the cavity. Similarly, the obstructed VF is also calculated when multiple obstructions are present in the cavity. Two distinct computer programs are developed by programming in FORTRAN-90 to evaluate unobstructed VF and obstructed VF for a square geometry. The calculations are based on the crossed strings method, which is more reliable for simple geometries. The shadow effect method is used for the obstructed VF calculations. The results of the developed programs are benchmarked using the summation rule. In the case of no obstacles in the cavity, VF calculations solely obey the summation rule. However, in the presence of obstacles in the cavity, obstructed VF calculations showed the acceptable difference in comparison with the summation rule.

scholarly journals Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy: an introduction to the second edition

2020 ◽  
Vol 379 (2189) ◽  
pp. 20200028
Author(s):  
Peter A. Norreys ◽  
Christopher Ridgers ◽  
Kate Lancaster ◽  
Mark Koepke ◽  
George Tynan
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Fusion Energy ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Inertial Fusion ◽  
Inertial Fusion Energy ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Fusion Research ◽  
Confinement Fusion

Part II of this special edition contains the remaining 11 papers arising from a Hooke discussion meeting held in March 2020 devoted to exploring the current status of inertial confinement fusion research worldwide and its application to electrical power generation in the future, via the development of an international inertial fusion energy programme. It builds upon increased coordination within Europe over the past decade by researchers supported by the EUROFusion Enabling Research grants, as well as collaborations that have arisen naturally with some of America's and Asia's leading researchers, both in the universities and national laboratories. The articles are devoted to informing an update to the European roadmap for an inertial fusion energy demonstration reactor, building upon the commonalities between the magnetic and inertial fusion communities’ approaches to fusion energy. A number of studies devoted to understanding the physics barriers to ignition on current facilities are then presented. The special issue concludes with four state-of-the-art articles describing recent significant advances in fast ignition inertial fusion research. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

scholarly journals An overview of Aurora: a multi-kilojoule KrF laser system for inertial confinement fusion

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis A. Rosocha ◽  
Pleas S. Bowling ◽  
Michael D. Burrows ◽  
Michael Kang ◽  
John Hanlon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Short Pulse ◽  
Laser System ◽  
Laser Pulses ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
Laser Amplifiers ◽  
Krf Laser ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Laser Systems

Aurora is a short-pulse high-power krypton-fluoride laser system that serves as an end-to-end technology demonstration prototype for large-scale ultraviolet laser systems of interest for short wavelength inertial confinement fusion (ICF) studies. The system is designed to employ optical angular multiplexing and serial amplification by electron-beam-driven KrF laser amplifiers to deliver 248 nm, 5-ns duration multi-kilojoule laser pulses to ICF targets using a beam train of approximately 1 km in length.In this paper, we will discuss the goals for the system and summarize the design features of the major system components: front-end lasers, amplifier train, optical train, and the alignment and controls systems.

scholarly journals Demonstration of symcaps to measure implosion symmetry in the foot of the NIF scale 0.7 hohlraums

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Seifter ◽  
G.A. Kyrala ◽  
S.R. Goldman ◽  
N.M. Hoffman ◽  
J.L. Kline ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Confinement Fusion ◽  
Inertial Confinement ◽  
X Rays ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Precise Control ◽  
Confinement Fusion ◽  
Laser Facility ◽  
Drive Pulse ◽  
Indirect Drive ◽  
Omega Laser

AbstractImplosions using inertial confinement fusion must be highly symmetric to achieve ignition on the National Ignition Facility. This requires precise control of the drive symmetry from the radiation incident on the ignition capsule. For indirect drive implosions, low mode residual perturbations in the drive are generated by the laser-heated hohlraum geometry. To diagnose the drive symmetry, previous experiments used simulated capsules by which the self-emission X-rays from gas in the center of the capsule during the implosion are used to infer the shape of the drive. However, those experiments used hohlraum radiation temperatures higher than 200 eV (Hauer et al., 1995; Murphy et al., 1998a, 1998b) with small NOVA scale hohlraums under which conditions the symcaps produced large X-ray signals. At the foot of the NIF ignition pulse, where controlling the symmetry has been shown to be crucial for obtaining a symmetric implosion (Clark et al., 2008), the radiation drive is much smaller, reducing the X-ray emission from the imploded capsule. For the first time, the feasibility of using symcaps to diagnose the radiation drive for low radiation temperatures, <120 eV and large 0.7 linear scales NIF Rev3.1 (Haan et al., 2008) vacuum hohlraums is demonstrated. Here we used experiments at the Omega laser facility to demonstrate and develop the symcap technique for tuning the symmetry of the NIF ignition capsule in the foot of the drive pulse.

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