Timeline
1987
High-Density Compression
The first cryogenic target system was installed on the OMEGA chamber in support of achieving the Department of Energy (DOE) goal of compressing a cryogenic direct-drive target to a density of 100 to 200× liquid DT density. Many laser shots were taken during the summer and early fall before it was decided to suspend shots in order to carry out several system redesigns. Among the principal problems faced at that time were target vibration, unpredictable cryogenic shroud retraction, and poor DT-layer quality. The lessons learned on this first OMEGA cryogenic system helped in the future design of the much more challenging cryogenic system that was developed a decade later for LLE experiments.
