Comparison of ablators for the polar direct drive exploding pusher platform

TL;DR

This study compares different ablators for the polar direct drive exploding pusher platform, highlighting how boron-based materials can optimize performance and provide additional data for plasma physics and neutron source applications.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative analysis of boron, boron carbide, high density carbon, and boron nitride ablators using validated EOS models in 2D simulations for the PDXP platform.

Findings

Boron-based ablators enable thinner designs supporting higher gas pressures.

Boron ablators can improve implosion symmetry and areal density.

Use of boron materials allows for additional data collection to refine models.

Abstract

We examine the performance of pure boron, boron carbide, high density carbon, and boron nitride ablators in the polar direct drive exploding pusher (PDXP) platform. The platform uses the polar direct drive configuration at the National Ignition Facility to drive high ion temperatures in a room temperature capsule and has potential applications for plasma physics studies and as a neutron source. The higher tensile strength of these materials compared to plastic enables a thinner ablator to support higher gas pressures, which could help optimize its performance for plasma physics experiments, while ablators containing boron enable the possiblity of collecting addtional data to constrain models of the platform. Applying recently developed and experimentally validated equation of state models for the boron materials, we examine the performance of these materials as ablators in 2D simulations, with particular focus on changes to the ablator and gas areal density, as well as the predicted symmetry of the inherently 2D implosion.