Moderate-convergence inertial confinement fusion implosions in tetrahedral hohlraums at Omega

A highly uniform thermal x-radiation field for indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions may be obtained by irradiating a four-hole, tetrahedral geometry, spherical hohlraum with all 60 Omega laser beams. Implosion studies and calculations [J. M. Wallace , Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3807 (1999)] indicate a drive uniformity comparable to that expected for the National Ignition Facility [J. A. Painser , Laser Focus World 30, 75 (1994)]. With 60 beams distributed over the cavity wall, tetrahedral hohlraums have a natural insensitivity to power balance and pointing errors. Standard, smooth Nova capsules imploded with this drive indicate that moderate convergence-ratio implosions, Cr similar to 18, have measured-neutron yield to calculated-clean-one-dimensional-neutronyield ratios similar to those previously investigated using the comparatively poor drive uniformity of Nova cylindrical hohlraums. This may indicate that a nonsymmetry-related neutron yield degradation mechanism, e.g., hydrodynamic mixing of cold, dense ablator material with the hot-spot region or some combination of nonsymmetry effects, is dominating in this Cr regime. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(00)04305-6].