Simulation study of the impact of backlighter quad removal on target performance for the proposed enhanced yield capability of NIF

Recent experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have established that thermonuclear yields > 3 MJ [1] are achievable with a laser energy of 2.05 MJ. A recently proposed upgrade of the NIF to higher energies (2.6 MJ), while keeping constant peak power, promises to reach even higher yields. These energies usher into a new frontier in high-energy density (HED) physics experiments and may allow probing into conditions relevant to astrophysical phenomena. However, in the current indirect-drive configuration, to utilize this new capability a few issues require further study. For example, diagnosing material properties on an external package will require the removal of beams (used as back-lighters) thus introducing an inherent drive asymmetry onto the primary implosion that may lead to significant yield degradation. We present simulations using the three-dimensional code HYDRA to assess the magnitude and impact on an igniting implosion introduced by the removal of a pair of quads from the NIF laser system and look at a possible compensation strategy.



[1] H. Abu-Shawareb et al. (The Indirect Drive ICF Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 065102 (2024)