Transformational imaging diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion

当我在爱丁堡大学攻读计算物理综合硕士学位时，一位朋友评论说，作为物理学家，我们可以为聚变能的发展做出贡献。因此，我正在攻读博士学位。在爱丁堡的第三和第四年的夏天，我在钻石光源实习，度过了一段美好的时光。在那里，我接触了X射线成像（不是字面上的），尽管它不是我项目的重点。然后，在我的第四和第五年之间，我参加了CCFE等离子体物理暑期学校。我的高级荣誉项目着眼于高压下的锂/钠超导，我的硕士项目专注于薄层湍流。我目前的项目标题是“惯性约束聚变的转换成像诊断”。惯性约束聚变是指用激光加热和压缩少量的燃料（氘和氚），直到其密度和温度足够进行聚变。激光通过烧蚀表面材料来引起压缩，这导致了“火箭效应”。当材料从表面烧蚀时，它会产生一个压缩力（通过牛顿定律），使用相同的想法来解释火箭推进。核心中的最大密度和热量是通过对称压缩来实现的，这需要对称烧蚀，这是很难实现的。在约克大学的奈杰尔·伍尔西（Nigel Woolsey）和STFC-CLF的Robbie Scott的指导下，我的项目的目标是开发新的成像技术（可能包括相位衬度成像），以帮助和改进惯性约束聚变诊断。这可能涉及使用计算机模拟来测试成像技术，看看它是否能产生准确的图像和有用的结果。

While I was studying for my integrated masters in computational physics at Edinburgh university, a friend commented that as physicists we could contribute to the development of fusion energy. As a result, I'm doing a PhD.In the summer between my 3rd and 4th years at Edinburgh, I had a fantastic time doing an internship at the Diamond Light Source. While there I was exposed to X-ray imaging (not literally), although it wasn't the focus of my project. Then, between my 4th and 5th years, I attended the CCFE Plasma Physics Summer School.My Senior honours project looked at lithium/sodium superconducting at high pressure, and my masters project was focused on thin layer turbulence.My current project's title is "Transformational imaging diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion". Inertial confinement fusion involves heating and compressing a small amount of fuel (deuterium and tritium) with lasers until it is dense and hot enough to undergo fusion. The lasers cause the compression by ablating a surface material, which leads to "the rocket effect". As the material ablates off the surface, it causes a compression force (through Newton's laws), using the same idea that explains rocket propulsion.The maximum density and heat in the core is achieved with symmetric compression, which requires symmetric ablation, which is quite difficult to achieve. This task is made especially difficult as it is hard to image inside the fuel.Under the supervision of Nigel Woolsey (University of York) and Robbie Scott (STFC-CLF), my project's goal is to develop new imaging techniques (likely involving phase contrast imaging), to aid and improve inertial confinement fusion diagnostics. This will likely involve using computational simulations to test the imaging technique to see if it yields accurate images and useful results.