Speaker – Bryan Foo
Graduate Student at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A diagnostically-accessible platform for investigating non-Maxwellian ion velocity distributions in ICF-relevant conditions
Recent ICF experiments at both the NIF and OMEGA laser facilities have yielded experimental signatures which are inconsistent with locally-Maxwellian ion velocity distributions, but questions remain regarding the exact origin of these signatures. A diagnostically-accessible platform that mocks up an ICF implosion in planar geometry has been fielded on the OMEGA laser system with the aim of making progress towards addressing these questions. The platform consists of two opposing CD foils which are driven from the backs into a D2 gas jet shot between the foils. Collective optical Thomson scattering is used to probe the ion velocity distributions at the center of the experimental configuration, and the inferred velocity distributions are