Influences of Laser-Driven and Shock-Driven Preheat on 3D-printed Porous Media

Mixing of materials in porous media can cause a significant impact on fusion yield as previously demonstrated by the NIF MARBLEⁱ Campaign. Initially, the reactants are separated, with deuterium in the lattice struts and a tritium gas fill in the voids. Lattice parameters such as the strut thickness and relative pitch, provide a control for the mix parameters in the experiment. Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) BOSQUE project looks to better understand how the mixⁱⁱ of the reactants and shell materials impact the fusion burn and resultant yield on various laser platforms.

This study will aim to uncover how the sensitivities due to sources of preheat such as laser driven hard x-rays, hot electrons, and radiative shock effects alter the structure of the two- photon polymerization (2pp) lattice. We will explore various experimental setups and laser platforms as well as radiographic measurements of shock position and disk expansion to estimate preheat due to shock and preheat due to laser drive respectively.

ⁱ B. J. Albright et al., “Experimental Quantification of the impact of heterogenous mix on thermonuclear burn,” Physics of Plasmas 29, 022702 (2022)

ⁱⁱ B. M. Haines et al., “Observation of persistent species temperature separation in inertial confinement fusion mixtures,” Nat. Commun. 11, 544 (2020)