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Fusion Science and Technology
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Nicholas Tsoulfanidis—ANS member since 1969
As an undergraduate I studied physics at the University of Athens. I entered the university in 1955 after successfully passing a national exam (came up fourth in a field of about 700 candidates). Upon graduation and finishing my mandatory two-year military service, the plan was to teach physics either in a public high school or as a tutor for a private for-profit institution, preparing high school students for the national exam.
D. R. Harding, T. C. Sangster, D. D. Meyerhofer, P. W. McKenty, L. D. Lund, L. Elasky, M. D. Wittman, W. Seka, S. J. Loucks, R. Janezic, T. H. Hinterman, D. H. Edgell, D. Jacobs-Perkins, R. Q. Gram
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 3 | November 2005 | Pages 1299-1306
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1079
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The OMEGA cryogenic target handling system provides deuterium-filled cryogenic targets for direct-drive implosion experiments. The targets are 0.9 mm in diameter with a 3-m-thick outer plastic ablator and an inner ice layer that ranges from 80 to 100 m thick. The smoothest ice layer possessed an average root-mean-square (rms) roughness of 1.2 m, although values ranging from 2 to 4 m are more typical. Implosion experiments achieved a maximum yield of 2.11 × 1011 primary neutrons (70% of the clean one-dimensional yield) with an average areal density of 50 mg/cm2 with a 1-ns square, high-adiabat ( = 25) laser pulse. Lower yields (1 × 1010 primary neutrons) and higher areal densities (88 mg/cm2) were obtained using a lower-adiabat ( = 4) laser pulse. Better performance is expected once smoother ice layers (better than 2-m average rms roughness) are positioned within 10 m of where the laser beams are pointed. Currently, the offset between the target's location and where the laser beams are pointing at the moment of implosion is 14 to 60 m.