High-resolution spectrometry of charged particles from inertial-confinement-fusion ͑ICF͒ experiments has become an important method of studying plasma conditions in laser-compressed capsules. In experiments at the 60-beam OMEGA laser facility ͓T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 ͑1997͔͒, utilizing capsules with D 2 , D 3 He, DT, or DTH fuel in a shell of plastic, glass, or D 2 ice, we now routinely make spectral measurements of primary fusion products ͑p, D, T, 3 He, ␣͒, secondary fusion products ͑p͒, ''knock-on'' particles ͑p, D, T͒ elastically scattered by primary neutrons, and ions from the shell. Use is made of several types of spectrometers that rely on detection and identification of particles with CR-39 nuclear track detectors in conjunction with magnets and/or special ranging filters. CR-39 is especially useful because of its insensitivity to electromagnetic noise and its ability to distinguish the types and energies of individual particles, as illustrated here by detailed calibrations of its response to 0.1-13.8 MeV protons from a Van de Graaff accelerator and to p, D, T, and ␣ from ICF experiments at OMEGA. A description of the spectrometers is accompanied by illustrations of their operating principles using data from OMEGA. Sample results and discussions illustrate the relationship of secondary-proton and knock-on spectra to capsule fuel and shell areal densities and radial compression ratios; the relationship of different primary fusion products to each other and to ion temperatures; the relationship of deviations from spherical symmetry in particle yields and energies to capsule structure; the acceleration of fusion products and the spectra of ions from the shell due to external fields; and other important physical characteristics of the laser-compressed capsules.

We have developed an accelerator architecture that can serve as the basis of the design of petawatt-class z-pinch drivers. The architecture has been applied to the design of two z-pinch accelerators, each of which can be contained within a 104-m-diameter cylindrical tank. One accelerator is driven by slow ( 1 s) Marx generators, which are a mature technology but which necessitate significant pulse compression to achieve the short pulses ( 1 s) required to drive z pinches. The other is powered by linear transformer drivers (LTDs), which are less mature but produce much shorter pulses than conventional Marxes. Consequently, an LTD-driven accelerator promises to be (at a given pinch current and implosion time) more efficient and reliable. The Marx-driven accelerator produces a peak electrical power of 500 TW and includes the following components: (i) 300 Marx generators that comprise a total of 1:8 10 4 capacitors, store 98 MJ, and erect to 5 MV; (ii) 600 water-dielectric triplate intermediate-store transmission lines, which also serve as pulse-forming lines; (iii) 600 5-MV laser-triggered gas switches; (iv) three monolithic radial-transmission-line impedance transformers, with triplate geometries and exponential impedance profiles; (v) a 6-level 5.5-m-diameter 15-MV vacuum insulator stack; (vi) six magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines (MITLs); and (vii) a triple-post-hole vacuum convolute that adds the output currents of the six MITLs, and delivers the combined current to a z-pinch load. The accelerator delivers an effective peak current of 52 MA to a 10-mm-length z pinch that implodes in 95 ns, and 57 MA to a pinch that implodes in 120 ns. The LTD-driven accelerator includes monolithic radial transformers and a MITL system similar to those described above, but does not include intermediate-store transmission lines, multimegavolt gas switches, or a laser trigger system. Instead, this accelerator is driven by 210 LTD modules that include a total of 1 10 6 capacitors and 5 10 5 200-kV electrically triggered gas switches. The LTD accelerator stores 182 MJ and produces a peak electrical power of 1000 TW. The accelerator delivers an effective peak current of 68 MA to a pinch that implodes in 95 ns, and 75 MA to a pinch that implodes in 120 ns. Conceptually straightforward upgrades to these designs would deliver even higher pinch currents and faster implosions.

Ignition requires precisely controlled, high convergence implosions to assemble a dense shell of deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel with ρR>∼1 g/cm2 surrounding a 10 keV hot spot with ρR ∼ 0.3 g/cm2. A working definition of ignition has been a yield of ∼1 MJ. At this yield the α-particle energy deposited in the fuel would have been ∼200 kJ, which is already ∼10 × more than the kinetic energy of a typical implosion. The National Ignition Campaign includes low yield implosions with dudded fuel layers to study and optimize the hydrodynamic assembly of the fuel in a diagnostics rich environment. The fuel is a mixture of tritium-hydrogen-deuterium (THD) with a density equivalent to DT. The fraction of D can be adjusted to control the neutron yield. Yields of ∼1014−15 14 MeV (primary) neutrons are adequate to diagnose the hot spot as well as the dense fuel properties via down scattering of the primary neutrons. X-ray imaging diagnostics can function in this low yield environment providing additional information about the assembled fuel either by imaging the photons emitted by the hot central plasma, or by active probing of the dense shell by a separate high energy short pulse flash. The planned use of these targets and diagnostics to assess and optimize the assembly of the fuel and how this relates to the predicted performance of DT targets is described. It is found that a good predictor of DT target performance is the THD measurable parameter, Experimental Ignition Threshold Factor, ITFX ∼ Y × dsf 2.3, where Y is the measured neutron yield between 13 and 15 MeV, and dsf is the down scattered neutron fraction defined as the ratio of neutrons between 10 and 12 MeV and those between 13 and 15 MeV.

.A unified set of high-temperature-hohlraum models has been developed. hohlraum is 15% higher than predicted by previous analytic expressions. A model of a hohlraum that encloses a z pinch is also presented.

For the first time high areal-density ͑R͒ cryogenic deuterium-tritium ͑DT͒ implosions have been probed using downscattered neutron spectra measured with the magnetic recoil spectrometer ͑MRS͒ ͓J. A. Frenje et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 10E502 ͑2008͔͒, recently installed and commissioned on OMEGA ͓T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 ͑1997͔͒. The R data obtained with the MRS have been essential for understanding how the fuel is assembled and for guiding the cryogenic program at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics ͑LLE͒ to R values up to ϳ300 mg/ cm 2 . The R data obtained from well-established charged particle spectrometry techniques ͓C. K. Li et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 4902 ͑2001͔͒ were used to authenticate the MRS data for low-R plastic capsule implosions, and the R values inferred from these techniques are in excellent agreement, indicating that the MRS technique provides high-fidelity data. Recent OMEGA-MRS data and Monte Carlo simulations have shown that the MRS on the NIF ͓G. H. Miller et al., Nucl. Fusion 44, S228͑2004͔͒ will meet most of the absolute and relative requirements for determining R, ion temperature ͑T i ͒ and neutron yield ͑Y n ͒ in both low-yield, tritium-rich, deuterium-lean, hydrogen-doped implosions and high-yield DT implosions.