NIF & Photon Science News
Spotlight on:
Papers & Presentations
Understanding Plasticity of Diamond for Improved Fusion Ignition
A study published in the journal Matter investigates the evolution of plasticity in diamond, which is important for high-energy-density experiments on high-energy laser systems such as NIF. Read more...
Two Lab Physicists Named SPIE Senior Members
LLNL’s Wren Carr and Peter DeVore were elected as senior members of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Read more...
Fusion Plasma Project Awarded $9.25 Million
An LLNL-led project aimed at using computing tools to improve understanding of fusion plasma dynamics was awarded DOE funding to accelerate fusion power plant development. Read more...
Portable Optical Thomson Scattering Diagnostic
LLNL scientists collaborated with UC San Diego to design a portable optical Thomson scattering diagnostic system to support ARPA-E’s fusion energy ventures. Read more...
August 23, 2023
Summer Scholar Program Celebrates a Record Year
The NIF&PS Summer Scholar Program had a record year in 2023—and it’s directly related to LLNL’s fusion ignition milestone last December. Read more...
Intern Follows Lifelong Passion for Science to LLNL
The NIF&PS Summer Scholar Program intern Elias Anwar has long considered science a perfect fit for his logic-driven mind and personality. Read more...
Summer Scholar Wants to Inspire Other Students
Summer Scholar Ashleigh Wilson once thought she’d become an accountant. Now the Norfolk State Ph.D. candidate has just wrapped up her second year as a NIF&PS summer intern. Read more...
A Passion for Physics Drives NIF Summer Intern
Danny Attiyah was initially drawn to math, but became hooked on physics. This summer, the third-year Ph.D. student at UC Irvine is at LLNL testing physics simulations he developed. Read more...
Mary Ann Cahoon, NIF&PS Summer Scholar
Clemson University Ph.D. student Mary Ann Cahoon is spending the summer learning at the intersection of chemistry and glass optical fiber fabrication. Read more...
Special Report: The Age of Ignition
Star Power: Blazing the Path to Fusion Ignition
Part 1: After 12 years of sustained and often frustrating effort and hundreds of experiments, LLNL achieved ignition. The first in a series of articles describing the elements of the breakthrough. Read more...
Precise Changes Yield Historic Results
Part 2: Fusion ignition came from a steady evolution of experimental designs, with continuous improvements in diagnostic, optics, and simulation technology, target quality, and the energy and reliability of NIF’s lasers. Read more...
Ignition Experiment Advances Stockpile Stewardship
Part 3: When scientists at LLNL achieved fusion ignition at NIF, the primary mission and driving goal behind the experiment was stockpile stewardship science. Read more...
Laser Power and Finesse Drove Ignition Success
Part 4: To achieve fusion ignition, NIF’s laser system needed to operate flawlessly at both ends of the performance spectrum, delivering immense energies while controlling the energy balance with extreme precision Read more...
Optics Meet Demands of Increased Laser Energy
Part 5: Hardening NIF’s optics to withstand ever-increasing laser energy and the debris caused by experiments was another key to achieving ignition. Read more...
Computing Codes Helped Make Ignition Possible
Part 6: For hundreds of physicists, computer scientists, and code developers who have worked on fusion for decades, computer simulations have been inexorably tied to LLNL’s quest for ignition.
Read more...
Diagnostics Were Crucial to Historic Ignition Shot
Part 7: The data collected from NIF diagnostics—specialized, state-of-the-art measuring instruments—played an essential role in LLNL’s ignition milestone. Read more...
Target Evolution Is a Key to NIF’s Continued Success
Part 8: The targets used in NIF experiments are marvels of engineering, but to ultimately exceed LLNL’s milestone ignition shot, an even higher level of perfection may be needed. Read more...
NIF Sustainment: Ensuring the Next 20 Years
Part 9: Having blazed the path to fusion ignition at NIF, LLNL researchers and their collaborators are now making plans for sustained, and even higher, nuclear yields to enable and expand applications for stockpile stewardship and basic science research. Read more...
HPC, AI, CogSim Helped LLNL Conquer Ignition
Part 10: For hundreds of LLNL scientists on the design, experimental, and modeling and simulation teams behind ICF experiments at NIF, the results of the now-famous Dec. 5, 2022, ignition shot didn’t come as a complete surprise. Read more...
Fusion Ignition News Thrusts LLNL into the Zeitgeist
Part 11: From “60 Minutes” to “SNL,” LLNL’s ignition achievement at NIF made big news that reached audiences around the world. For months afterward, hardly a day went by without a story published somewhere mentioning the milestone. Read more...
Meet the People Behind the Scenes of Ignition Shot
Part 12: LLNL’s fusion ignition achievement came thanks to the essential contributions of hundreds of Lab employees who work diligently behind the scenes and often out of public view. Here are profiles of just a few of those key workers. Read more...
August 16, 2023
LLNL Corones Award Winners Celebrated
LLNL physicist Tammy Ma and computational scientist Jeff Hittinger were recently celebrated for winning the Krell Institute’s James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, and Communication. Read more...
August 9, 2023
Two LLNL Scientists Named Optica Senior Members
LLNL scientists David Gibson and Paul Pax were named Optica senior members, which recognizes a decade or more of professional experience in optics or an optics-related field. Read more...
Daniel Casey Receives DOE Early Career Award
NIF&PS physicist Daniel Casey and Physical and Life Sciences chemist Gauthier Deblonde received the Energy Department’s Early Career Research Program award. Read more...
July 26, 2023
Laser Fusion Pioneer Celebrates 50 Years at LLNL
NIF Senior Scientist John Lindl, who was instrumental in launching LLNL’s successful effort to achieve fusion ignition, has been recognized for his five decades of service at the Laboratory. Read more...
Defense Programs Award of Excellence
The NNSA honored a team of LLNL multidisciplinary experts for the Aug. 8, 2021 experiment at NIF that exceeded Lawson’s criterion for nuclear fusion. Read more...
CASC Contributions to Fusion Ignition
LLNL’s Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC)—“siblings of a sort” with NIF—has made many contributions to making controlled laboratory fusion ignition possible. Read more...
July 12, 2023
Tammy Ma: Paying It Forward Paid Career Dividends
As an LLNL summer intern, Tammy Ma received valuable advice that she has continued to follow throughout her exceptional career as an experimental plasma physicist at LLNL. Read more...
Spotlight on Justin Galbraith: Finding Balance
NIF&PS Mechanical engineer Justin Galbraith tests his physical boundaries by participating in ultramarathon trail runs, multi-day races of 30 to 200 miles through challenging terrain. Read more...
July 5, 2023
Experimental Platform Will Probe Warm Dense Matter
A new experimental platform on NIF promises to deliver precise measurements of the characteristics of warm dense matter, which is present in the interior of planets and ICF experiments. Read more...
Researchers Refine Optics Metasurface Process
Optics researchers at LLNL have refined their novel metasurface process, an advance that unlocks exciting new design possibilities for NIF and other advanced laser systems. Read more...
June 21, 2023
How AI Predicted Fusion Ignition Before It Happened
The Data Science Institute hosted a seminar by LLNL researchers Kelli Humbird and Luc Peterson on how AI predicted ignition before it happened. Read more...
Safety Society Honors NIF Operations Manager
The American Society of Safety Professionals, San Francisco Chapter, awarded NIF Operations Manager Bruno Van Wonterghem with the “Managers Who Get Safety” award. Read more...
June 14, 2023
Telly Awards Honor Two LLNL Videos
The 44th Annual Telly Awards honored LLNL with five awards for two videos that helped announce the Lab’s fusion ignition achievement and visualize how experiments happen at NIF. Read more...
June 7, 2023
Laser Safety Protocols Contributed to Historic Shot
NIF’s long-established level of attention to laser safety over the years laid a foundation for LLNL’s historic achievement of fusion ignition.
Read more...
May 31, 2023
Physicist Authors Laser-Plasma Interactions Book
LLNL physicist Pierre Michel has authored a newly published textbook on laser-plasma interactions that is being called “indispensable” for graduate students and researchers. Read more...
Video: Meet Laser Physicist Issa Tamer
As a high school student, Issa Tamer knew he liked science, but wasn’t sure what discipline to pursue. That changed when he happened to see the Wikipedia page for NIF. Read more...
Optics for Petawatt Pulses
Science & Technology magazine: LLNL researchers received an R&D 100 Award for devising high-energy, low-dispersion (HELD) diffraction gratings that can withstand higher laser energies. Read more...
May 24, 2023
Nature: Pressure-Driven Ionization in Giant Planets
Just published in Nature: An international research team conducted experiments at NIF that offer important implications for astrophysics and nuclear fusion research. Read more...
May 15, 2023
Hundreds Gather to Celebrate Fusion Achievement
DOE and NNSA officials, members of Congress, past Lab directors, employees, and partners gathered on May 8 to celebrate the Lab’s fusion ignition achievement. Read more...
Ignition Day Celebration Photos
Here are photos from LLNL’s May 8 celebration of the Lab’s achievement of fusion ignition. Read more...
Krell Institute Honors LLNL Physicist Tammy Ma
The Krell Institute has awarded LLNL physicist Tammy Ma with its 2023 James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, and Communication. Read more...
Automated Software Optimizes NIF Shot Efficiency
Automation of the fiber-delay backlighter (FDBL) diagnostic technique has reduced the execution time for NIF experiments and allows for the optimization of shot scheduling. Read more...
May 4, 2023
NIF and JLF User Groups Look Beyond Ignition
Attendees at this year’s NIF and JLF User Groups Meeting celebrated LLNL’s fusion ignition breakthrough at NIF, but also kept their focus on the bright future of HED science research. Read more...
April 24, 2023
Physicists Unravel Warm Dense Matter
Two LLNL physicists joined colleagues from institutions in Germany, Sweden, and the UK as co-authors of a recent Physics of Plasmas paper summarizing current research on warm dense matter. Read more...
Iron Under Extremes
Science & Technology Review: LLNL scientists have performed a series of experiments through NIF’s Discovery Science Program to replicate the extreme conditions within super-Earth cores. Read more...
April 19, 2023
Lab Scientist Wins Springer Thesis Award
Elizabeth Grace, an LLNL High Energy Density Science (HEDS) Center fellow, has won a 2023 Springer Thesis Award for her work on a diagnostic instrument called ‘STRIPED FISH’ for NIF. Read more...
LLNL’s Christopherson, Pak Elected Kavli Fellows
LLNL staff scientists Alison Christopherson and Art Pak have been elected Kavli Fellows of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Read more...
April 13, 2023
Beyond Diamond: Seeking Elusive Phase of Carbon
Researchers are using NIF’s unique capabilities in a renewed experimental campaign to confirm elusive post-diamond phases of carbon, which would be a material science breakthrough. Read more...
Time Names LLNL Physicist Top 100 Most Influential
Time named physicist Annie Kritcher one of the world’s 100 most influential people for her role as the principal designer of LLNL’s historic Dec. 5, 2022, fusion ignition shot at NIF. Read more...
Ignition Team Receives ‘Game Changers’ Award
A collective of regional business and civic leaders in the Tri-Valley has honored LLNL’s fusion ignition team members for their “game-changing” breakthrough. Read more...
April 12, 2023
Report on HED Science Includes LLNL Contributions
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report identifying key challenges and questions facing the field of HED science and facilities like NIF during the upcoming decade. Read more...
