EVALUATION OF A FOAM BUFFER TARGET DESIGN FOR USE IN ICF

Experimental observations are presented demonstrating that the use of an x-ray preformed low density foam layer on the surface of a directly-driven foil is effective in smoothing spatial nonuniformities present in a coherent drive laser. Observations have been made on the thermal smoothing in the preformed foam layer, the acceleration history of the hybrid target and on the levels of parametric instability growth, with encouraging results.