High Energy Density Physics Research at Sandia National Laboratories
Ramon J. Leeper, Sandia National Laboratories
This presentation will focus on High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) research opportunities at Sandia National Laboratories. These HEDP areas of research include basic science, dynamic materials, radiation physics, and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The major HEDP facilities located at Sandia include the Z pulsed power facility and the Z Beamlet and Z-Petawatt laser facilities. The Z pulsed power facility is capable of delivering peak currents of 26 MA and peak electrical powers that exceed 100 TW. The Z Beamlet Laser is a terawatt-class laser and is used to create backlighting x-ray sources in the 1-9 keV range for radiographic measurements of ICF capsule implosions. The Z-Petawatt is a kJ-class petawatt laser that will enable basic science studies as well as higher energy x-ray backlighting in the 10-40 keV range. The paper will introduce these facilities along with recent representative research results in the development of z-pinch soft x-ray sources for ICF applications, equation-of-state studies, and fundamental stellar astrophysics. Finally, the presentation will introduce a new 1100 TW pulsed power facility concept that has recently been proposed and published by Sandia researchers.
Abstract Author(s): Ramon Leeper