News

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.

NIF Laser Safety Protocols Laid a Foundation for Historic LLNL Ignition Shot

When a Lab principal investigator told NIF&PS Work Planner (WP) Sandeep Bansal about what was thought to be a simple plan to install a new laser system for research, she immediately knew it would be more complicated than just firing the laser.

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 all changed when at his part-time job setting up computers, he happened to see the Wikipedia page for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on a customer’s monitor.

Bringing the Literature on Laser-Plasma Interactions Up to Date

For many years, LLNL physicist Pierre Michel, an internationally known expert on the physics of laser-plasma interactions (LPI), saw a gap in his field’s literature: the lack of an up-to-date textbook on LPI relevant to the kind of experiments conducted on NIF.

Optics for Petawatt Pulses

As the home of the world’s largest and most energetic laser, Lawrence Livermore regularly stands at the forefront of high-energy-density physics research. The Laboratory’s laser systems create extreme experimental conditions by exploiting a simple relationship: power is defined as energy transfer over time.

Experiments Shed Light on Pressure-Driven Ionization in Giant Planets and Stars

Scientists have conducted laboratory experiments at LLNL’s NIF that provide new insights on the complex process of pressure-driven ionization in giant planets and stars.

Ignition Day Celebration Photos

Here are photos from LLNL’s May 8 celebration of the Lab’s achievement of fusion ignition.

Backlighter Tech: Automated Software to Optimize 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.

Igniting the future: Hundreds gather to celebrate historic fusion achievement

On a day certain to rank in the upper echelon of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s historical milestones, Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials, members of Congress, past Lab directors, employees and partners gathered on May 8 to celebrate the Lab’s 2022 fusion ignition achievement.

NIF Sustainment: Ensuring the Next 20 Years of Progress

Part 9 of “The Age of Ignition,” a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report describing the elements of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s fusion breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility

Krell Institute Honors LLNL Physicist Tammy Ma

The Krell Institute, a nonprofit organization serving the scientific and educational communities, has awarded LLNL physicist Tammy Ma with its 2023 James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, and Communication.

NIF and JLF User Groups Look Beyond Ignition to Bright Possibilities in Science

Attendees at this year’s NIF and JLF User Groups Meeting celebrated Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) recent fusion ignition breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility, but also kept their focus on looking ahead to a bright future of high energy density (HED) science research.

Unraveling Warm Dense Matter: From Simulations to Experiments

Researchers at LLNL and many other facilities are increasingly intrigued by warm dense matter (WDM), an extreme state between cold matter and hot plasma characterized by high temperatures, high pressures, and densities approaching and even partially exceeding solid objects.

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.

Target Evolution Is a Key to NIF’s Continued Success

Part 8 of “The Age of Ignition,” a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report describing the elements of the National Ignition Facility’s fusion breakthrough

Lab scientist wins Springer Thesis Award

Elizabeth Grace, the High Energy Density Science (HEDS) Center Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has won a 2023 Springer Thesis Award for her work in short-pulse laser physics.

LLNL’s Alison Christopherson, Art Pak Elected NAS Kavli Fellows

LLNL staff scientists Alison Christopherson and Art Pak have been elected Kavli Fellows of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Beyond Diamond: Seeking An Elusive Phase of Carbon

Carbon, an essential ingredient of life on Earth, is a shapeshifter. The extreme strength of carbon-carbon bonds enables the material to take on many different structural forms, called phases or allotropes, at ambient temperatures and pressures. Examples range from the familiar, such as graphite and diamond, to more exotic forms like zero-dimensional fullerenes, 1-D nanotubes, 2-D graphene...

LLNL’s Annie Kritcher named to TIME100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world

Time has named Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) design physicist Andrea “Annie” Kritcher to its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The TIME100, now in its 20th year, recognizes the “impact, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals.”

Diagnostics Were Crucial to LLNL’s Historic Ignition Shot

Part 7 of “The Age of Ignition,” a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report describing the elements of the National Ignition Facility’s fusion breakthrough