Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
A theoretical model of spherical ablative implosion is presented. The implosion performances such as the target coupling efficiency are estimated from the aspect ratio and initial mass density of a target shell, provided the laser is fixed at moderate intensity for a given wavelength. The model is applied to the experimental results obtained for both plastic hollow shell targets and DT gas-filled GMB targets by use of the twelve-beam green GEKKO XII laser. In addition to the target coupling efficiency, it is shown for the gas-filled targets that the theoretical predictions of neutron yield, ion temperature, and fuel ρ and ρR are in good agreement with the experimental results. Reduction of neutron yields due to irradiation nonuniformity is also discussed, and 5% of absorption nonuniformity is found to be required for explaining the discrepancies in neutron yield between the experiments and the theory.