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...
LLNL’s Wren Carr and Peter DeVore were elected as senior members of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Read more...
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...
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
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...
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 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...
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...
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
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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
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...
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
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...
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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
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
NIF’s long-established level of attention to laser safety over the years laid a foundation for LLNL’s historic achievement of fusion ignition.
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May 31, 2023
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...
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...
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
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
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...
Here are photos from LLNL’s May 8 celebration of the Lab’s achievement of fusion ignition. Read more...
The Krell Institute has awarded LLNL physicist Tammy Ma with its 2023 James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, and Communication. Read more...
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
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
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...
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
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 staff scientists Alison Christopherson and Art Pak have been elected Kavli Fellows of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
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April 13, 2023
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 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...
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
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...