Scientists have identified for the first time two distinctly different types of electromagnetic configurations in inertial confinement fusion implosions that have substantial effects on implosion dynamics and diagnosis.

In the most recent research, which appears in the Feb. 29 issue of the journal, Science, Ryan Rygg of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester used radiography with a pulsed monoenergetic proton source to simultaneously measure field strength and area densities by looking at the energy lost by protons during the implosion.

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a process where nuclear fusion reactions (which release copious amounts of energy) are initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a spherical shell containing a mixture of deuterium and tritium. Upon completion of the National Ignition Facility laser, fuel will be compressed a thousand-fold by rapid energy deposition onto the surface of a fuel target.

Graduate students Dan Casey and Mario Manuel, left, and Professor Richard Petrasso of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center with the detector used to study implosions that recreate the high temperatures and densities found inside stars. (Credit: MIT photo by Sean McDuffee)

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