Impact of inertial confinement fusion capsule parameters on time-dependent ion temperature*

Time-dependent, burn-weighted, ion temperature is a useful tool to diagnose an inertial confinement fusion capsule’s performance. Increasing ion temperatures during burn indicates an increase in the fusion rate and thus a well performing capsule. One potential method to diagnose the ion temperature’s time-dependent slope is known as the “multipuck” diagnostic. The multipuck diagnostic measures the time-dependent skew of neutron signals using multiple, neutron-to-gamma-ray, conversion foils (pucks) and a gamma-ray detector. These skews are related to the ion temperature’s slope.

A parameter study of typical capsules used at the OMEGA 60 Laser Facility was conducted to examine the impact of initial capsule parameters on the time-dependent, ion-temperature evolution. Additionally, this investigation probes potential test cases for the multipuck diagnostic. These capsules were simulated using HELIOS, a one-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code, in a spherical geometry. Our parametric study includes ablator thickness, ablator inner radius, laser intensity, fuel mix, and fuel density. In this talk, we present our preliminary study of how capsule parameters impact the time-dependent, ion temperature evolution of OMEGA scale capsules.