The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will allow scientists to prove the feasibility of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The success of ICF experiments at NIF will critically depend on the availability of robust targets. Guided by computer simulations, we generated a new target design that takes advantage of the extreme atomic density of synthetic diamond, and developed a process that allows us to produce large quantities of these ultrahigh precision diamond targets via a low-cost batch process. Computer simulations were used to assess the performance and the robustness of these diamond targets. The results demonstrate that diamond has the potential to outperform other target materials in terms of energy efficiency and implosion stability, thus making successful ignition more likely.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will allow scientists to prove the feasibility of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The success of ICF experiments at NIF will critically depend on the availability of robust targets. Guided by computer simulations, we generated a new target design that takes advantage of the extreme atomic density of synthetic diamond, and developed a process that allows us to produce large quantities of these ultrahigh precision diamond targets via a low-cost batch process. Computer simulations were used to assess the performance and the robustness of these diamond targets. The results demonstrate that diamond has the potential to outperform other target materials in terms of energy efficiency and implosion stability, thus making successful ignition more likely. 国立点火施設（NIF）により、科学者たちは慣性核融合（ICF）の実現可能性を実証できるようになる。NIFにおけるICF実験の成否は、堅牢なターゲットの入手可能性に決定的に依存する。コンピューターシミュレーションに導かれ、我々は合成ダイヤモンドの極めて高い原子密度を活用した新しいターゲット設計を生成し、低コストのバッチプロセスによりこれらの超高精度ダイヤモンドターゲットを大量に製造することを可能にするプロセスを開発した。コンピューターシミュレーションを用いて、これらのダイヤモンドターゲットの性能と堅牢性を評価した。その結果、ダイヤモンドはエネルギー効率と爆縮安定性の点で他のターゲット材料よりも優れた性能を発揮する可能性があり、それによって点火の成功の可能性が高まることが実証された。