First Measurements of Deuterium-Tritium and Deuterium-Deuterium Fusion Reaction Yields in Ignition-Scalable Direct-Drive Implosions

• Main Authors: Forrest, C. J (Author), Radha, P. B (Author), Knauer, J. P (Author), Glebov, V. Yu (Author), Goncharov, V. N (Author), Regan, S. P (Author), Rosenberg, M. J. (Author), Sangster, T. C (Author), Shmayda, W. T (Author), Stoeckl, C. (Author), Gatu Johnson, Maria (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2017-03-07T15:27:18Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The deuterium-tritium (D-T) and deuterium-deuterium neutron yield ratio in cryogenic inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments is used to examine multifluid effects, traditionally not included in ICF modeling. This ratio has been measured for ignition-scalable direct-drive cryogenic DT implosions at the Omega Laser Facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] using a high-dynamic-range neutron time-of-flight spectrometer. The experimentally inferred yield ratio is consistent with both the calculated values of the nuclear reaction rates and the measured preshot target-fuel composition. These observations indicate that the physical mechanisms that have been proposed to alter the fuel composition, such as species separation of the hydrogen isotopes [D. T. Casey et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 075002 (2012)], are not significant during the period of peak neutron production in ignition-scalable cryogenic direct-drive DT implosions.