Publications by authors named "K Piston"
Inertial confinement fusion experiments taking place at the National Ignition Facility are generating ever increasing amounts of fusion energy, with the deuterium tritium fusion neutron yield growing a hundredfold over the past ten years. Strategies must be developed to mitigate this harsh environment's deleterious effects on the operation and the performance of the time-resolved x-ray imagers deployed in the National Ignition Facility target bay to record the dynamics of the implosions. We review the evolution of these imagers in recent years and detail some of the past and present efforts undertaken to maintain or improve the quality of the experimental data collected on high neutron yield experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAchievement of Target Gain Larger than Unity in an Inertial Fusion Experiment.
Phys Rev Lett
February 2024
Article Synopsis
- * This experiment produced 2.05 MJ of laser energy, resulting in 3.1 MJ of total fusion yield, which exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition, demonstrating a key milestone in fusion research.
- * The report details the advancements in target design, laser technology, and experimental methods that contributed to this historic achievement, validating over five decades of research in laboratory fusion.
Article Synopsis
- - The application of a 26 Tesla magnetic field to a gas-filled capsule at the National Ignition Facility boosts ion temperatures by 40% and increases neutron yield by 3.2 times, getting closer to conditions needed for fusion ignition.
- - The improvements in energy measurements come from analyzing 2.45 MeV neutrons from the D(d,n)^{3}He reaction, with the internal magnetic field estimated at ∼4.9 kT from 14.1 MeV secondary neutrons in D(T,n)^{4}He reactions.
- - The experiments utilized a 30 kV pulsed-power system to send a short current pulse through a solenoidal coil, and their results aligned with radiation magnetoh
The hardened single line of sight camera has been recently characterized in preparation for its deployment on the National Ignition Facility. The latest creation based on the pulse-dilation technology leads to many new features and improvements over the previous-generation cameras to provide better quality measurements of inertial confinement fusion experiments, including during high neutron yield implosions. Here, we present the characterization data that illustrate the main performance features of this instrument, such as extended dynamic range and adjustable internal magnification, leading to improved spatial resolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCholine and geranic acid (CAGE)-based ionic liquids have been recently developed for applications in drug delivery. Understanding the microscopic structures of CAGE in the presence of water is critical for its continued use in biomedical applications as it will undoubtedly come into contact with water in physiological fluids. Water can drastically impact the physicochemical properties of the ionic liquids, including CAGE.
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