Diagnosing plasma magnetization in inertial confinement fusion implosions using secondary deuterium-tritium reactions

H Sio; J D Moody; D D Ho; B B Pollock; C A Walsh; B Lahmann; D J Strozzi; G E Kemp; W W Hsing; A Crilly; J P Chittenden; B Appelbe

doi:10.1063/5.0043381

Diagnosing plasma magnetization in inertial confinement fusion implosions using secondary deuterium-tritium reactions

Rev Sci Instrum. 2021 Apr 1;92(4):043543. doi: 10.1063/5.0043381.

Authors

H Sio¹, J D Moody¹, D D Ho¹, B B Pollock¹, C A Walsh¹, B Lahmann², D J Strozzi¹, G E Kemp¹, W W Hsing¹, A Crilly³, J P Chittenden³, B Appelbe³

Affiliations

¹ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
² Plasma Science & Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
³ The Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.

PMID: 34243465
DOI: 10.1063/5.0043381

Abstract

Diagnosing plasma magnetization in inertial confinement fusion implosions is important for understanding how magnetic fields affect implosion dynamics and to assess plasma conditions in magnetized implosion experiments. Secondary deuterium-tritium (DT) reactions provide two diagnostic signatures to infer neutron-averaged magnetization. Magnetically confining fusion tritons from deuterium-deuterium (DD) reactions in the hot spot increases their path lengths and energy loss, leading to an increase in the secondary DT reaction yield. In addition, the distribution of magnetically confined DD-triton is anisotropic, and this drives anisotropy in the secondary DT neutron spectra along different lines of sight. Implosion parameter space as well as sensitivity to the applied B-field, fuel ρR, temperature, and hot-spot shape will be examined using Monte Carlo and 2D radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations.