Fabrication of Multiple Fill Tube Targets for Sandia National Laboratory

Target design for the National Ignition Facility requires either a glass or polyimide (PI) fill tube. To study the hydrodynamic effects that are introduced by a fill tube during capsule implosion, fill tube targets were fabricated for experiments at the Z-Pinch facility. Three and four fill tube targets were designed and fabricated to maximize data during each experiment. Targets were made with PI and glass fill tubes on the same capsule to study the shadowing differences between glass and plastic fill tubes. Four tube targets were fabricated with diameters ranging from 10-45 m to study the effect diameter has on implosion characteristics. Capsules were coated with a germanium-doped layer of glow discharge polymer. Blind holes were drilled in the capsules using an excimer laser. Fill tubes were fabricated using modified capillary pullers and assembly was done on a specially designed assembly station designed for fill tube fabrication. Targets were characterized by optical microscopy and by micron resolution x-ray tomography.