NIF Sub-scale Platform Development

In order to increase the shot rate on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) a smaller, lower-energy, room-temperature experimental capability has been designed. The goal of the sub-scale design was to reduce the energy requirement to 900kJ. The starting point for the sub-scale design was a layered plastic capsule in a full scale (575) gold hohlraum that was driven by a four shock, low adiabat, 1.8MJ, 420TW, 21-ns long laser pulse. Simple scaling arguments showed that scaling the capsule and hohlraum dimensions to 80{\%} of full scale should meet the energy requirements. The capability includes sub-scale versions of the ignition-scale re-emit,\footnote{E. L. Dewald, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235001 (2013).} keyhole,\footnote{H. F. Robey, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 215004 (2012).} symmetry,\footnote{G. A. Kyrala, et al, Phys. Plasmas 18, 056307 (2011).} backlit,\footnote{J. R. Rygg, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 195001 (2014).} and hydro-growth radiography\footnote{K. S. Raman, et al, submitted to Phys. Plasmas (2014).} platforms. An experimental campaign to commission these platforms was performed. This talk will review the design and results of these commissioning experiments.