Nuclear measurements of fuel-shell mix in inertial confinement fusion implosions at OMEGA

Direct drive spherical implosions on the OMEGA laser system [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] have shown that increased capsule convergence results in increased susceptibility to fuel-shell mix. Mix results from saturation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, leading to small-scale, turbulent eddies and atomic-level mixing of the high-density compressed shell with hot, low-density fuel from the core. To sensitively probe the extent of mix, nuclear yields were measured from implosions of capsules filled with pure He3. The plastic capsule shell contains a deuterated plastic (CD) layer either on the inner surface or offset from the inner surface by 1μm. Mixing of D from the shell with hot He3 in the core is necessary to produce 14.7MeV DHe3 protons in such capsules. DHe3-proton spectral measurements have been used to constrain the amount of mix at shock time, to demonstrate that some of the fuel mixes with the offset CD layer, and that capsules with a higher initial fill density or thicker shell are less susceptible to the effects of mix.