Dynamic Shell Stability to Low-Mode Perturbations

A novel design concept in direct drive inertial confinement fusion utilizes a shell, which is developed from a spherical pellet of liquid DT and then imploded to produce conventional central hot-spot ignition [see Goncharov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 065001 (2020)]. The stability of such a dynamic shell to short- and long-wavelength perturbations is of a great interest and importance since these perturbations can result in degradation of implosion performance. We investigate the evolution long-wavelength asymmetries (with spherical modes L < 50) in dynamic shell designs using the 3-D hydrodynamic code ASTER. Simulations help to identify the dependency of implosion performance on assumed mode perturbations. Results of these simulations will guide designs of proof-of-principal experiments on dynamic shell formation on OMEGA and NIF. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0003856 and ARPA-E BETHE Grant No. DE-FOA-0002212.