ICF Diagnostics

Abstract

In the past several years there have been significant advances and accomplishments in the field of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) research which are directly attributable to an active experimental program supported by the development and applications of sophisticated and specialized diagnostics instruments and techniques. Descriptions and discussions of many of these can be found in the referenced papers and reports^(1–4) and references cited therein. The continued development of high temporal-and spatial-resolution diagnostics, although with a somewhat different technical emphasis than previously, is essential for maintaining progress in ICF. With the generation of inertial fusion drivers now becoming available progress toward higher density compression of fusion fuel will be attained at the expense of temperature, and consequently emissions from the targets will be limited. At the same time since the targets are being driven to higher density they are more opaque to the low-to-moderate energy x-rays (up to a few keV) and particles (alpha particles, protons, and knock-on charged particles) that have been utilized for diagnosing target performance.