Past, current, and potential future measurements of backscatter from hohlraum targets at the National Ignition Facility*

From 2009 and continuing to the present date, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and Brillouin scattering (SBS) of laser light from plasma formed at the target has been measured across close to 1000 indirect drive inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). We present a summary of these data, and in particular seek to identify trends arising from changes in the delivered laser and target properties.

An enhanced yield capability (EYC) provided by an upgraded laser at the NIF is being proposed. Using a target hydroscaled up by a factor of 1.09 from current igniting HYBRID-E designs^[1,2], we also present the first experiments specifically designed to study EYC-relevant physics with a focus on exploring laser-plasma interaction in the EYC regime. These results are discussed in the context of past SRS and SBS measurements at the NIF.

[1] The Indirect Drive ICF collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett 132, 065102 (2024)

[2] A. L. Kritcher et al., Phys. Rev. E 109, 025204 (2024)