Simulation and assessment of ion kinetic effects in a direct-drive capsule implosion experiment

TL;DR

This paper presents the first kinetic simulations of direct-drive capsule implosions, revealing how ion kinetic effects significantly influence fusion burn performance and fuel-shell interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a kinetic modeling approach for inertial confinement fusion experiments, highlighting the impact of non-Maxwellian ion distributions on implosion outcomes.

Findings

Non-Maxwellian ion velocity distributions during shock convergence

Ion species separation affects fusion burn efficiency

Fuel diffusion into the shell degrades fusion performance

Abstract

The first simulations employing a kinetic treatment of both fuel and shell ions to model inertial confinement fusion experiments are presented, including results showing the importance of kinetic physics processes in altering fusion burn. A pair of direct drive capsule implosions performed at the OMEGA facility with two different gas fills of deuterium, tritium, and helium-3 are analyzed. During implosion shock convergence, highly non-Maxwellian ion velocity distributions and separations in the density and temperature amongst the ion species are observed. Diffusion of fuel into the capsule shell is identified as a principal process that degrades fusion burn performance.