Density determination of the thermonuclear fuel region in inertial confinement fusion implosions

Abstract

Understanding of the thermonuclear burn in an inertial confinement fusion implosion requires knowledge of the local deuterium–tritium (DT) fuel density. Neutron imaging of the core now provides this previously unavailable information. Two types of neutron images are required. The first is an image of the primary 14-MeV neutrons produced by the D + T fusion reaction. The second is an image of the 14-MeV neutrons that leave the implosion hot spot and are downscattered to lower energy by elastic and inelastic collisions in the fuel. These neutrons are measured by gating the detector to record the 6–12 MeV neutrons. Using the reconstructed primary image as a nonuniform source, a set of linear equations is derived that describes the contribution of each voxel of the DT fuel region to a pixel in the downscattered image. Using the measured intensity of the 14-MeV neutrons and downscattered images, the set of equations is solved for the density distribution in the fuel region. The method is validated against test problems and simulations of high-yield implosions. The calculated DT density distribution from one experiment is presented.