Extended Data Fig. 3: Design changes and corresponding effect on implosion dynamics from18 and this work. | Nature Physics

Extended Data Fig. 3: Design changes and corresponding effect on implosion dynamics from18 and this work.

From: Demonstration of a hydrodynamically equivalent burning plasma in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion

Extended Data Fig. 3: Design changes and corresponding effect on implosion dynamics from18 and this work.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

a,b) The outer section of the pure CD ablator in (a) was replaced with a 5-7% silicon-doped CH ablator, and the ice thickness was slightly increased. (c) The pulse shape and various aspects of the simulation dynamics from LILAC post-shot simulations. Shot #90288 (the highest performer from18) is in blue, and shot 104949 is in magenta. The pulse shape is shortened and the intensity is increased from #90288. Due to the silicon in the outer ablator, CBET is mitigated, and the higher intensity first spike has the same absorption fraction, while the fixed intensity second spike has higher absorption. This results in a substantially higher maximum velocity (from 466 to 510 km/s) for the silicon doped implosion, despite the larger mass of the ice and ablator layers. The increased temperature of the coronal plasma due to silicon also reduced the threshold parameter and activity of the two-plasmon decay (TPD).

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