First Measurements of Fuel-Ablator Interface Instability Growth in Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions on the...

Direct measurements of hydrodynamic instability growth at the fuel-ablator interface in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions are reported for the first time. These experiments investigate one of the degradation mechanisms behind the lower-than-expected performance of early ICF implosions on the National Ignition Facility. Face-on x-ray radiography is used to measure instability growth occurring between the deuterium-tritium fuel and the plastic ablator from well-characterized perturbations. This growth starts in two ways through separate experiments-either from a preimposed interface modulation or from ablation front feedthrough. These experiments are consistent with analytic modeling and radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, which say that a moderately unstable Atwood number and convergence effects are causing in-flight perturbation growth at the interface. The analysis suggests that feedthrough from outersurface perturbations dominates the interface perturbation growth at mode 60.