High-density carbon capsule experiments on the national ignition facility

Indirect-drive implosions with a high-density carbon (HDC) capsule were conducted on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to test HDC properties as an ablator material for inertial confinement fusion. A series of five experiments were completed with 76-mu m-thick HDC capsules using a four-shock laser pulse optimized for HDC. The pulse delivered a total energy of 1.3 MJ with a peak power of 360 TW. The experiment demonstrated good laser to target coupling (similar to 90%) and excellent nuclear performance. A deuterium and tritium gas-filled HDC capsule implosion produced a neutron yield of 1.6 x 10(15) +/- 3 x 10(13), a yield over simulated in one dimension of 70%.