Proposed equation of state experimental program at NOVA/NIF

The high pressure equations of state of materials must be accurately known for confident design, simulation, and interpretation of ICF target experiments and for weapons. Here, the authors sketch out a program to perform precise and accurate equation of state (EOS) experiments using large, high-power lasers. The program is divided into three phases: (1) a driver qualification program which will determine the necessary drive and target design parameters; (2) characterization of low and high-Z standard materials; (3) accurate impedance-match experiments to determine equations of state of materials of interest relative to the qualified standards. Novel methods are proposed for the first phase which are an order of magnitude more sensitive than those applied previously. They identify and describe the choices for standards and the samples slated for initial studies. In all cases, their goal is to obtain data that is of sufficiently high quality to serve for design purposes and to validate theories of material response at high pressures of the order of 1--10 TPa. This is particularly important right now, for materials such as CH plastics and hydrogen (DT). In addition, they will suggest a program for EOS measurements for P > 10 TPa, the region of maximum theoretical EOS uncertainty for many materials