In a major step into the future of energy, scientists have captured the most detailed view yet of the shockwaves that help trigger nuclear fusion.
A new study, published in Nature Communications, detailed how researchers employed an advanced "multi-messenger" imaging technique to observe how laser-driven shockwaves move and evolve at a small scale. The University of Michigan led the work through the Department of Energy's LaserNetUS program, with experiments conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Fusion, the process that powers the sun, involves two nuclei combining to form a heavier nucleus and produce plasma under extreme heat and compression, releasing massive amounts of energy. It has the potential to provide low-carbon power with fewer waste issues than conventional nuclear plants, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, but it remains costly and technically demanding.
One approach to harness this process for energy is inertial confinement fusion, which uses lasers to strike a fuel capsule, creating shockwaves that compress the material and initiate fusion. But the process is costly and sensitive; small instabilities can prevent efficient, economic reactions.
For the experiment, scientists fired synchronized laser pulses at a superthin flowing jet of water, which served as a useful replacement for fusion materials. This allowed the safe observation of how shockwaves compress matter under extreme conditions. Using X-rays and high-energy electron beams, researchers created a high-speed video capturing the shockwaves' behavior in trillionths of a second, according to a Berkeley Lab press release.
"We wanted to demonstrate that the X-rays produced by extremely intense lasers have unique properties that allow us to capture a 'movie' of the extremely fast motion of plasma," Alec Thomas, study author and plasma physics researcher at the University of Michigan, said in the press release.
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"There's a lot of excitement surrounding recent breakthroughs in laser-driven fusion. Making further progress requires accurate diagnostics to capture the dynamics of hot plasma, especially unstable behavior that can prevent fusion plasmas from burning properly."
Their approach uncovered an unexpected thin layer of water vapor surrounding the jet of water, which helped compress the material more evenly. This closely resembled how low-density foam layers are sometimes used in the exteriors of confinement fusion targets to enhance symmetry. This thin compression layer had not been clearly observed before or considered by computer simulations, according to the lab's press release.
"Every time we looked at the X-ray image, it surprised us," said Hai-En Tsai, study author and scientist at the Berkeley Laboratory. "The simulations were very different from what we actually saw."
Identifying gaps between models and real-world behavior could help researchers develop better fusion mechanisms and improve efficiency.
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While commercial fusion implementation is still years away, breakthroughs like this, along with many others, bring scientists closer to harnessing one of the most promising clean energy sources, potentially leading to reduced energy bills and decreased dependence on planet-warming resources. While not a complete solution, it should complement renewables like wind and solar in an energy-abundant future that also helps cool the planet.
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