P2 Asymmetry of Au's M-band Flux and its smoothing effect due to high-Z ablator dopants

X-ray drive asymmetry is one of the main seeds of low-mode implosion asymmetry that blocks further improvement of the nuclear performance of "high-foot" experiments on the National Ignition Facility [Miller et al., Nucl. Fusion 44, S228(2004)]. More particularly, the P2 asymmetry of Au's M-band flux can also severely influence the implosion performance [Li et al., Phys. Plasmas 23,072705(2016)]. Here we study the smoothing effect of mid- and/or high-Z dopants in ablator on M-band flux asymmetries, by modeling and comparing the implosion processes of a Ge-doped and a Si-doped ignition capsule driven by x-ray sources with asymmetric M-band flux. As the results, (1) mid- or high-Z dopants absorb M-band flux and re-emit isotropically, helping to smooth M-band flux arriving at the ablation front, therefore reducing the P2 asymmetries of the imploding shell and hot spot; (2) the smoothing effect of Ge-dopant is more remarkable than Si-dopant due to its higher opacity than the latter in Au's M-band; and (3) placing the doped layer at a larger radius in ablator is more efficient. Applying this effect may not be a main measure to reduce the low-mode implosion asymmetry, but might be of significance in some critical situations such as Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments very near the performance cliffs of asymmetric x-ray drives.