Capsule performance optimization in the National Ignition Campaign

A capsule performance optimization campaign will be conducted at the National Ignition Facility [G. H. Miller , Nucl. Fusion 44, 228 (2004)] to substantially increase the probability of ignition by laser-driven hohlraums [J. D. Lindl , Phys. Plasmas 11, 339 (2004)]. The campaign will experimentally correct for residual uncertainties in the implosion and hohlraum physics used in our radiation-hydrodynamic computational models before proceeding to cryogenic-layered implosions and ignition attempts. The required tuning techniques using a variety of ignition capsule surrogates have been demonstrated at the OMEGA facility under scaled hohlraum and capsule conditions relevant to the ignition design and shown to meet the required sensitivity and accuracy. In addition, a roll-up of all expected random and systematic uncertainties in setting the key ignition laser and target parameters due to residual measurement, calibration, cross-coupling, surrogacy, and scale-up errors has been derived that meets the required budget. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3298882]