Comparative properties of the interior and blowoff plasmas in a dynamic hohlraum

A Dynamic Hohlraum DH is formed when arrays of tungsten wires driven by a high-current pulse implode and compress a cylindrical foam target. The resulting radiation is confined by the wire plasma and forms an intense, 200–250 eV Planckian x-ray source. The internal radiation can be used for indirect drive inertial confinement fusion. The radiation emitted from the ends can be employed for radiation flow and material interaction studies. This external radiation is accompanied by an expanding blowoff plasma. We have diagnosed this blowoff plasma using K-shell spectra of Mg tracer layers placed at the ends of some of the Dynamic Hohlraum targets. A similar diagnosis of the interior hohlraum has been carried out using Al and Mg tracers placed at 2 mm depth from the ends. It is found that the blowoff plasma is about 20–25% as dense as that of the interior hohlraum, and that its presence does not significantly affect the outward flow of the nearly Planckian radiation field generated in the hohlraum interior. However, the electron temperature of the blowoff region, at 120 eV, is only about half that of the interior hohlraum plasma. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2718907