Ablation of NIF Targets and Diagnostic Components by High Power Lasers and X-Rays from High Temperature Plasmas

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will consist of 192 laser beams that have a total energy of up to 1.8 MJ in the 3rd harmonic ({lambda} = 0.35 {micro}m) with the amount of 2nd harmonic and fundamental light depending on the pulse shape. Material near best focus of the 3rd harmonic light will be vaporized/ablated very rapidly, with a significant fraction of the laser energy converted into plasma x rays. Additional plasma x rays can come from imploding/igniting capsule inside Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) hohlraums. Material from outer portions of the target, diagnostic components, first-wall material, and optical components, are ablated by the plasma x rays. Material out to a radius of order 3 cm from target center is also exposed to a significant flux of 2nd harmonic and fundamental laser light. Ablation can accelerate the remaining material to high velocities if it has been fragmented or melted. In addition, the high velocity debris wind of the initially vaporized material pushes on the fragments/droplets and increases their velocity. The high velocity shrapnel fragments/droplets can damage the fused silica shields protecting the final optics in NIF. We discuss modeling efforts to calculate vaporization/ablation, x-ray generation, shrapnel production, and ways to mitigate damage to the shields