Quick Shot

In collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), LLE scientists and engineers are developing coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) to characterize the initial microscopic bulk and surface defects in layered DT cryogenic implosion targets. These defects can seed hydrodynamic instabilities, which degrade target performance. The 3-D target metrology would lead to a better understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities in OMEGA implosions. A low-vibration cryostat designed by LLE Research Engineer, Bob Earley, which forms a cryogenic deuterium target accessible to the CARS diagnostic, will be delivered to Professor Yongfeng Lu and his research team at UNL to optimize the CARS technique for this application. This is a major step in analyzing the real initial conditions in LLE capsules. Shown in the first image is the just-completed large structure, which is used to hold the instrument. A close-up of the instrument that houses the target is shown in the middle image, and a close-up of the target is shown center of the right images. The project was a result of the hard work of David Harding, Yongfeng Lu (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Xi Huang (UNL), Robert Earley, Dale Guy, Karl Lintz, Mark Bonino, Dayna Wasilewski, Sarah Fess, Sean Carey, Greg Brent, Heath Ferry, Tim Clark, and Bill Byrne.