Material Characterization of Hierarchical Tunable Pore Size Polymer Foams Used in the MARBLE Mix Morphology Experiment

Abstract

One of the great challenges of inertial confinement fusion and high energy density experiments is understanding the effects of mix on thermonuclear burn. The MARBLE campaign, conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, aims to gather new insights into this issue by utilizing unique target capsules containing polymer foams of variable pore sizes, tunable over an order of magnitude. Such capsules allow the degree of initial heterogeneity to be controlled experimentally for the first time. Here, we describe the various characterization efforts used to gain understanding of the chemical structure and behavior of the foam. Previous experiments were not sensitive to foam physical properties, and the MARBLE platform has aided in the development of techniques to measure foam properties such as deuterium content, density variation, hydrogen adsorption, and pore size and volume distribution.

Experimental quantification of the impact of heterogeneous mix on thermonuclear burn

“…Control of systematic errors in the MARBLE experiments required accurate foam characterization 39 , including precise measurements of the tritium and deuterium content.…”