Evolution of the target design for the MJ laser

In the previous design, the maximum drive radiation temperature was 4 MK or 350 eV (Holstein 1996). Different beam configurations gave roughly the same uniformity with the NIF-size cavity. Our best configuration used four cones of beams illuminating three rings. An integrated 2D simulation pointed out that the symmetry was good enough to reach a gain of ten. Two evolutions took place in the design of our MJ laser. We moved from a capsule adapted to 4 MK (L1000) to another one adapted to 3.5 MK (L1215) in order to minimize the parametric instabilities (the cavity size is almost the same). This new capsule also has a better hydrostability according to the “classical modelling” (Lindl 1995). The second evolution is a simplification of the target chamber. We restricted ourselves to two major configurations for indirect drive (two-ring and three-ring configurations). Therefore, only three cones of beams are necessary instead of five cones in the first design. Finally, the number of holes in the chamber is 80 instead of 100.