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Abstract: The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is the world’s largest and most energetic laser system. The nearly 2 MJ of energy in NIF’s 192 laser beams is designed to create very extreme states of matter - temperatures more than 100 million K and pressures more than 200 billion atmospheres - conditions emulating those found in the interiors of stars and planets. One of the main NIF campaigns is focused on demonstrating thermonuclear burn in the laboratory by laser inertial fusion. Recent experiments have reached several important achievements: fuel gain (more fusion energy generated than delivered to the fuel), burning plasma (fusion reactions themselves are the primary source of heating in the plasma), and hints of burn propagation (fusion burn wave moving into cold surrounding fuel). In August 2022, we demonstrated gain of 0.7, defined as fusion yield divided by laser energy, putting us on the threshold of ignition and setting a roadmap towards full ignition with higher gains. Achieving this will be a major step towards demonstrating the feasibility of laser-based fusion as a source of abundant, carbon-free energy. We will provide an update on the progress and challenges toward controlled laboratory nuclear fusion.
Bio: Dr. Jackson Williams is an experimental plasma physicist working on inertial confinement fusion (ICF), ultraintense laser-matter interactions, and high energy density (HED) science at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. Jackson graduated with a B.A. in physics and mathematics from St. Olaf College (MN) in 2008, then received an M.S. in applied physics from DePaul University (Chicago, IL) in 2010. He completed his Ph.D. in Applied Science from University of California, Davis in 2016, studying laser-driven positron-electron pair generation at LLNL as a Lawrence Scholar. Jackson completed a postdoc at LLNL before transitioning to a staff scientist in 2019 where he now leads experiments at NIF and other large laser facilities focusing on the development of x-ray and particle sources for the investigation of HED systems. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 refereed journal publications and is committed to education and scientific outreach.
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