Specular reflections (“glint”) of the inner beams in a gas-filled cylindrical hohlraum

Abstract

We report on the experimental measurement of specular reflection (“glint”) of laser beams off the hohlraum wall in inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility. In a hohlraum, glinted light can escape the opposite laser entrance hole of the hohlraum and is a potential laser energy loss mechanism. The total measured glint on the inner cones of beams is measured to be less than 8 TW (when using the full National Ignition Facility laser), which is <2% of incident peak power. The simulated x-ray flux exceeds the measurement by 10%–20%, and glinted laser light is unable to account for this discrepancy. Similar inner beam glint was measured for ρ = 0.3 and 0.6 mg/cc gas fill hohlraums, but no glint was detected for 1.2 mg/cc densities. Inner beam glint is dominated by the lowest angle 21.5 beams within a 23.5 quad, and it is at most 30% sensitive to different quad polarization arrangements.