Lab Physicist Wins Sylvie Jacquemot Early Career Prize

LLNL scientist Elizabeth Grace won the 2026 European Physical Society-Plasma Physics Division Sylvie Jacquemot Early Career Prize for groundbreaking work in developing a single-shot laser imaging technique.

When Lasers Cross: LLNL Finds a Brighter Way to Measure Plasma

LLNL scientists have tested a new crossed-laser technique that measures plasma conditions in a single shot, with signals more than a billion times stronger than traditional Thomson scattering.

TARDIS Experiments Boost NIF Discovery Science and Stockpile Stewardship

On the morning of July 10, researchers completed an experiment that marked the 200th use of NIF’s workhorse TARDIS experimental platform.

Taking the Temperature of Plutonium

In an ambitious five-year project, LLNL researchers and their colleagues have developed an experimental platform designed to determine the internal energy of plutonium under pressures of 10 million Earth atmospheres or more.

New NIF Diagnostic Tool Will Make ‘Movies’ of Phase Changes in Materials

In a significant advance in high-pressure physics, LLNL researchers developed a tool to capture real-time sequential images of phase changes in materials. This new diagnostic instrument—dubbed FIDDLE—is shedding light on the nanosecond dynamics of matter under extreme conditions.

Ensuring Material Survivability

NIF's increasing shot yields—including the achievement of fusion ignition—enable materials and components to be tested for nuclear survivability at hotter and more intense conditions.

Three Lab Scientists Named 2024 APS Fellows

LLNL scientists Daniel Casey, Daniel Clark, and Raymond Smith have been named 2024 American Physical Society (APS) Fellows.

Diagnostics Explored the ‘Unknowns’ in NIF Ignition Experiments

A recent Physics of Plasmas paper showed how sophisticated diagnostic equipment played a central role in testing the ICF models, simulations, and experimental designs used in laser shots that led to ignition at NIF.

Automated Target Measurements Contribute to LLNL's Ignition Success

An advanced technique for characterizing high-quality target capsules for NIF experiments has played an important role in LLNL's recent success in repeatedly achieving fusion ignition.

Video: The Beamline to Ignition

In this video, you can follow the journey of NIF’s laser beams as they increase in energy from 1 billionth of a joule to 4 million joules by the time they reach the center of the Target Chamber.

Models and Simulations Help Map NIF’s Path to Ignition

Inertial confinement fusion researchers don’t design and carry out experiments on NIF without the guidance of sophisticated computational models and simulations informed by diagnostic data and analysis of previous experiments.

Fusion Milestone Creates Buzz at Hybrid APS Plasma Physics Meeting

LLNL physicist Debbie Callahan has given plenty of presentations over the years—but she didn’t expect a standing ovation at the 2021 APS Division of Plasma Physics (APS DPP) meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

NIF Diagnostics Played Key Role in Fusion Milestone

The National Ignition Facility (NIF)’s highly specialized and sophisticated measuring instruments known as diagnostics were integral to the record-setting inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiment that produced more than 1.3 million joules (MJ) of fusion energy.

Gold Monoliths Lighter Than Air

LLNL researchers collaborated with target fabrication scientists to test storing, transporting, and mounting lighter-than-air gold aerogel “foam’ on targets at NIF.

New Laser Testing System Brings NIF Back to the Future

NIF’s recommissioned Precision Diagnostic System has advanced diagnostic tools that help researchers experiment with potential methods to increase laser performance.

NIF Research Highlighted at Virtual Plasma Physics Conference

Eight LLNL researchers presented NIF-related talks and posters at the 47th European Physical Society Plasma Physics Conference, held online June 21-25. Attendees heard updates about NIF Discovery Science experiments, experiments manipulating the speed and polarization of light, 3D modeling aimed at reducing asymmetries in NIF implosions, and other advancements in modeling and diagnostics.

Scientists Collaborate on Novel Instrument for NIF

LLNL and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory collaborated on an x-ray crystal spectrometer to measure a challenging feature of HED matter produced by NIF experiments.

From NIF to Z: LLNL, Sandia Continue to Collaborate on Diagnostics Projects

LLNL and Sandia National Laboratories are continuing their long-standing collaboration on diagnostic advancements for the nation’s premier high energy density (HED) research facilities.

A Challenging New Tool to Diagnose Hohlraum Plasma

LLNL scientists and engineers have developed a complex and sophisticated state-of-the-art diagnostic tool, the Optical Thomson Scattering Laser System, for measuring the plasma conditions inside the hohlraums that drive inertial confinement fusion implosions as well as in other high energy density systems.

New Instrument Improves Refractive Index Measurements at High Pressure

A high-precision interferometer system, newly developed to measure the pressure dependence of the refractive index and its dispersion in diamond anvil cells, could become another important diagnostic tool for NIF experiments.