Tammy Ma is the Advanced Photon Technologies Program Element Leader for High-Intensity Laser High Energy Density (HED) Science within the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Her group pioneers use of the highest intensity lasers in the world to investigate novel high energy density states of matter, generate energetic beams of particles, study laboratory astrophysics, and explore fusion physics. Ma currently also serves as the Deputy Director for LLNL’s Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) Program. Since joining LLNL, she has led many inertial confinement fusion experiments on the NIF, developed new x-ray diagnostics, and chaired the Lab-Wide LDRD program funding highly innovative research.

Ma earned her B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Caltech in 2005, and her M.S. in 2008 and Ph.D. in 2010 both from the University of California, San Diego.

Ma has authored or co-authored over 185 refereed journal publications, and currently sits on the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC), providing advice to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science on complex scientific and technological issues related to fusion energy and plasma research. Tammy was the recipient of the 2013 Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE), the 2016 Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Research from the American Physical Society for her work in quantifying hydrodynamic instability mix in ICF implosions, a 2018 DOE Early Career Research Award, and the 2021 Fusion Power Associates Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award. She was also named 2019 Woman of the Year for the California 16th Assembly District for her commitment to education, and to mentoring and encouraging young students who share her passion for science. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

 

Presentation title:  Igniting a fusion energy future with optics and photonics

Abstract: The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the U.S. is the world’s largest, most energetic laser, and is the largest optical system ever built. The 192 independent and very energetic laser beams of NIF are focused onto a miniature capsule the size of a BB containing fusion fuel to achieve conditions hotter and denser than those found at the center of the sun.

This past August, a record-breaking shot with 1.35 megajoules of fusion yield was achieved, more than two-thirds of the 1.9 megajoules of the laser energy going in. This equates to an energy gain of 70% of that needed for ignition (more energy out than we put in with the lasers). This experimental result, decades in the making, is a significant breakthrough for laser-driven inertial fusion. This talk will review the experimental results, the photonics advancements and many more technologies that made this breakthrough possible, and the implications for future research. Furthermore, these recent game-changing results on the NIF now lay the groundwork to explore laser inertial fusion as a path for clean energy and energy security.

 

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