Exploring Impacts of Kinetic Effects on Inertial Confinement Fusion Experiments

Traditionally, most modeling in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) utilizes hydrodynamic models. However, this is not well justified when plasmas are not sufficiently collisional. This talk focuses on several ICF projects where kinetic models were necessary. First, a series of shock-driven separated reactant experiments at OMEGA have demonstrates that kinetic models are necessary to explain the quantity of mix observed. Burn history data demonstrates a bang time 50 ps earlier for separated reactant implosions relative to control, indicating hydrodynamic mix is not responsible. Secondly, an investigation of detector impulse response for the nuclear bang time detector PTOF revealed certain detectors with an ultrafast response enabling measurement of burn history in a novel experiment measuring stagnation of flows induced in. The burn history measurement validated predictions from a multispecies model, demonstrating reduced confinement of flow stagnation due to species interpenetration.