Direct-drive laser-fusion experiments with the OMEGA, 60-beam, >40 kJ, ultraviolet laser system

OMEGA, a 60-beam, 351 nm, Nd:glass laser with an on-target energy capability of more than 40 kJ, is a flexible facility that can be used for both direct- and indirect-drive targets and is designed to ultimately achieve irradiation uniformity of 1% on direct-drive capsules with shaped laser pulses (dynamic range >400:1). The OMEGA program for the next five years includes plasma physics experiments to investigate laser-matter interaction physics at temperatures, densities, and scale lengths approaching those of direct-drive capsules designed for the 1.8 MJ National Ignition Facility (NIF); experiments to characterize and mitigate the deleterious effects of hydrodynamic instabilities; and implosion experiments with capsules that are hydrodynamically equivalent to high-gain, direct-drive capsules. Details are presented of the OMEGA direct-drive experimental program and initial data from direct-drive implosion experiments that have achieved the highest thermonuclear yield (10(14) DT neutrons) and yield efficiency (1% of scientific breakeven) ever attained in laser-fusion experiments. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.