The implosion of cryogenic spherical shell targets

Spherical glass shells filled with deuterium-tritium gas have been used as cryogenic targets in neutron-producing experiments. Experiments were performed under cryogenic conditions to determine the state and form of the fuel at the time of arrival of the laser pulse in target interaction experiments. The results from neutron-producing experiments indicate that cryogenic targets implode significantly better than room-temperature targets under comparable experimental conditions and that the neutron production for cryogenic targets is significantly greater than for equivalent targets at room temperature.