Publications

Physics of Plasmas

Cuneo, M.E.; Vesey, Roger A.; Porter, John L.; Chandler, Gordon A.; Fehl, David L.; Gilliland, Terrance L.; Hanson, David L.; McGurn, John S.; Reynolds, Paul G.; Ruggles, Larry R.; Seamen, Hans; Spielman, Rick B.; Struve, Kenneth W.; Stygar, William A.; Simpson, Walter W.; Torres, Jose A.; Wenger, D.F.; Hammer, James H.; Rambo, Peter W.; Peterson, Darrell L.; Idzorek, George C.

Initial experiments to study the Z-pinch-driven hohlraum high-yield inertial confinement fusion (ICF) concept of Hammer, Tabak, and Porter [Hammer et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 2129 (1999)] are described. The relationship between measured pinch power, hohlraum temperature, and secondary hohlraum coupling ("hohlraum energetics") is well understood from zero-dimensional semianalytic, and two-dimensional view factor and radiation magnetohydrodynamics models. These experiments have shown the highest x-ray powers coupled to any Z-pinch-driven secondary hohlraum (26±5 TW), indicating the concept could scale to fusion yields of >200 MJ. A novel, single-sided power feed, double-pinch driven secondary that meets the pinch simultaneity requirements for polar radiation symmetry has also been developed. This source will permit investigation of the pinch power balance and hohlraum geometry requirements for ICF relevant secondary radiation symmetry, leading to a capsule implosion capability on the Z accelerator [Spielman et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 2105 (1998)]. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Review of Scientific Instruments

Ruggles, Larry R.; Cuneo, M.E.; Porter, J.L.; Wenger, D.F.; Simpson, Walter W.

Three x-ray spectrometers, each with a transmission grating dispersion element, are routinely used at the Z soft x-ray facility to measure the spectrum and temporal history of the absolute soft x-ray power emitted from z-pinch and hohlraum radiation sources. Our goal is to make these measurements within an accuracy of ±10%. We periodically characterize the efficiency of the gratings used in the spectrometers by using an electron-impact soft x-ray source, a monochromator, grazing-incidence mirrors, thin filters, and an x-ray charge-coupled device (CCD) detector. We measure the transmission efficiency of the gratings at many photon energies for several grating orders. For each grating, we calculate efficiency as a function of photon energy using published optical constants of gold and multiple-slit Fraunhofer diffraction theory and fit the calculation to the measurements using the physical parameters of the grating as variables. This article describes the measurement apparatus and calibration techniques, discusses the grating efficiency calculation and fitting procedure, and presents recent results. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.