Polar direct drive illumination uniformity provided by the Orion facility

• Published in: The European physical journal. D, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Vol. 67; no. 10
• Main Authors: Temporal, Mauro, Canaud, Benoit, Garbett, Warren J., Philippe, Franck, Ramis, Rafael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-10-2013; EDP Sciences
• Subjects: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Theory; Atomic; Biological and medical applications; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Optics; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Information Technology; Quantum Physics; Regular Article; Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; Spintronics; Plasma Physics; High-power lasers; Laser irradiation; Laser beams; Green's function methods; Pulsed lasers; Comparative study
• ISSN: 1434-6060; 1434-6079
• DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-40362-4

The ten long-pulse laser beams of the Orion facility have been considered as a direct driver for the irradiation of a spherical capsule. The intrinsic root-mean-square illumination non-uniformity
σ
0
has been evaluated assuming circular and elliptical super-Gaussian laser intensity profiles. Calculations accounting for nominal uncertainties in power imbalance, pointing error and target positioning have shown a degradation of the irradiation uniformity. Non-uniformity of the irradiation as a function of the capsule radius has been calculated and it has been shown that the use of the polar direct drive technique significantly improves the quality of the irradiation. Finally, it is found that an elliptical focal shape provides better symmetry results in comparison to circular ones, whilst the laser-capsule coupling is reduced.