The X-rays that fill the hohlraum bathe the fuel capsule at its center, depositing energy on the outside of the capule and heating the outer capsule layers (referred to as the ablator). This hot plasma rushes away from the capsule into the relative vacuu
A hydrodynamical simulation of the ablation and compression of a solid plastic sample by thermal X-rays. The X-rays are incident from the left. Hot, tenuous material expands rapidly off the (previously) solid surface toward the left, while a shockwave mo
radiation wave
shock wave
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