We measure the conversion efficiency of 351 nm laser light to soft x-rays (0.1-5 keV) for Au, U and high Z mixtures "cocktails" used for hohlraum wall materials in indirect drive ICF. We use spherical targets in a direct drive geometry, flattop laser pulses and laser smoothing with phase plates to achieve constant and uniform laser intensities of 10 14 and 10 15 W/cm 2 over the target surface that are relevant for the future ignition experiments on NIF. The absolute time and spectrally-resolved radiation flux is measured with a multichannel soft x-ray power diagnostic. The conversion efficiency is then calculated by dividing the measured x-ray power by the incident laser power from which the measured laser backscattering losses is subtracted. After ~0.5 ns, the time resolved x-ray conversion efficiency reaches a slowly increasing plateau of 95% at 10 14 W/cm 2 laser intensity and of 80% at 10 15 W/cm 2 . The M-band flux (2-5 keV) is negligible at 10 14 W/cm 2 reaching ~1% of the total x-ray flux for all target materials. In contrast, the Mband flux is significant and depends on the target material at 10 15 W/cm 2 laser intensity, reaching values between 10% of the total flux for U and 27% for Au. Our LASNEX simulations show good agreement in conversion efficiency and radiated spectra with data when using XSN atomic physics model and a flux limiter of 0.15, but they underestimate the generated M-band flux.
I IntroductionIn indirect drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments, intense laser or charged particle beams heat the interior of high-Z cylindrical cavities called hohlraums to efficiently generate soft x-rays. The role of the soft x-rays is to uniformly produce an ablation drive that compresses the DT filled capsule placed inside the hohlraum, driving it to ignition and burn [1]. Due to the relaxed requirements on laser-beam uniformity and reduced sensitivity to hydrodynamic instabilities the indirect drive scenario is the main approach for future ignition experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [2,3,4]. In such a hohlraum containing a capsule and heated by laser beams the power balance is given by [5,6]:η CE (P laser -P backscatter ) = P walls +P LEH + P capsule =σT R 4 [(1-α)A wall +A LEH +f capsule A capsule ] (1) where η CE is the laser conversion efficiency into soft x-rays (<2 keV), P laser is the incident laser power, P backscatter is the backscattered light by parametric laser-plasma instabilities, P capsule is the radiation absorbed by the capsule, P LEH is the radiation escaping through the hohlraum laser entrance holes (LEH) and P walls is the radiation loss in the hohlraum walls.Furthermore, σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, T R is the hohlraum radiation temperature (≤300 eV), α is the x-ray albedo of the hohlraum wall [7], defined as the ratio between the re-emitted and incident soft x-ray flux at the hohlraum wall, A wall and A LEH are the areas of the hohlraum wall and LEH's, f capsule is the fraction of incident x-ray flux that is absorbed by the capsule and A ...