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Updated: May 9, 2026

Preparation and Reactivity of Gasless Nanostructured Energetic Materials
Published on: April 2, 2015
Hot-spot mix in ignition-scale inertial confinement fusion targets
S P Regan1, R Epstein, B A Hammel
1Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
Abstract:
Mixing of plastic ablator material, doped with Cu and Ge dopants, deep into the hot spot of ignition-scale inertial confinement fusion implosions by hydrodynamic instabilities is diagnosed with x-ray spectroscopy on the National Ignition Facility. The amount of hot-spot mix mass is determined from the absolute brightness of the emergent Cu and Ge K-shell emission. The Cu and Ge dopants placed at different radial locations in the plastic ablator show the ablation-front hydrodynamic instability is primarily responsible for hot-spot mix. Low neutron yields and hot-spot mix mass between 34(-13,+50) ng and 4000(-2970,+17 160) ng are observed.
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