Laser Implosion of High-Aspect-Ratio Targets Produces Thermonuclear Neutron Yields Exceeding1012by Use of Shock Multiplexing

Abstract

Neutron yields in excess of ${10}^{12}$ were achieved with the twelve-beam green GEKKO XII laser by choice of a shock-multiplexing imposion mode as predicted by a simulation code HIMICO. The first half of a Gaussian pulse was used to achieve a tailored implosion with shock multiplexing. The implosion mode is sensitive to the matching between the implosion time and the laser pulse. The simulation result suggests that the compression with a large deceleration at the stagnation phase due to the shock-wave multiplexing plays an important role in attainment of high neutron yields without pusher-fuel mixing in high-aspect-ratio D-T shell targets.