March 2013 DOE Report
Experimental Comparison of Hydrodynamic Efficiencies for Be, C, and CH Ablators
For direct-drive implosions, the implosion velocity of the unablated mass determines the minimum laser energy required for ignition. Experiments on the OMEGA laser show a 20% increase in the implosion velocity when using a Be ablator compared to a C or CH ablator at both low and high overlapped intensities.
Shown here are implosion velocities determined from the measured (solid squares) and calculated (open squares) shell trajectories for various ablator materials (CH, C, and Be) at low (blue) and high (red) overlapped intensities.