Demonstration of the Highest Deuterium-Tritium Areal Density Using Multiple-Picket Cryogenic Designs on OMEGA

The performance of triple-picket deuterium-tritium cryogenic target designs on the OMEGA Laser System [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] is reported. These designs facilitate control of shock heating in low-adiabat inertial confinement fusion targets. Areal densities up to 300 mg/cm(2) (the highest ever measured in cryogenic deuterium-tritium implosions) are inferred in the experiments with an implosion velocity similar to 3 X 10(7) cm/s driven at peak laser intensities of 8 X 10(14) W/cm(2). Extension of these designs to ignition on the National Ignition Facility [J. A. Paisner et al., Laser FocusWorld 30, 75 (1994)] is presented.