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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Ion thermal decoupling and species separation in shock-driven implosions
Hans G Rinderknecht1, M J Rosenberg1, C K Li1
1Plasma Science and Fusion Center Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Anomalous reduction of the fusion yields by 50% and anomalous scaling of the burn-averaged ion temperatures with the ion-species fraction has been observed for the first time in D^{3}He-filled shock-driven inertial confinement fusion implosions. Two ion kinetic mechanisms are used to explain the anomalous observations: thermal decoupling of the D and ^{3}He populations and diffusive species separation. The observed insensitivity of ion temperature to a varying deuterium fraction is shown to be a signature of ion thermal decoupling in shock-heated plasmas. The burn-averaged deuterium fraction calculated from the experimental data demonstrates a reduction in the average core deuterium density, as predicted by simulations that use a diffusion model. Accounting for each of these effects in simulations reproduces the observed yield trends.
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