Predicting hot electron generation in inertial confinement fusion with particle-in-cell simulations

S H Cao; D Patel; A Lees; C Stoeckl; M J Rosenberg; V Gopalaswamy; H Wen; H Huang; A Shvydky; R Betti; C Ren

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.106.055214

Predicting hot electron generation in inertial confinement fusion with particle-in-cell simulations

Phys Rev E. 2022 Nov;106(5-2):055214. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.106.055214.

Authors

S H Cao^{1

2}, D Patel^{1

2}, A Lees¹, C Stoeckl², M J Rosenberg², V Gopalaswamy^{1

2}, H Wen², H Huang², A Shvydky², R Betti^{1

2

3}, C Ren^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
² Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.

PMID: 36559357
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.106.055214

Abstract

A series of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with speckled laser drivers was carried out to study hot electron generation in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion on OMEGA. Scaling laws were obtained for hot electron fraction and temperature as functions of laser/plasma conditions in the quarter-critical region. Using these scalings and conditions from hydro simulations, the temporal history of hot electron generation can be predicted. The scalings can be further improved to predict hard x-rays for a collection of OMEGA warm target implosions within experimental error bars. These scalings can be readily implemented into inertial confinement fusion design codes.