Progress towards fielding Boron-Carbide Ablators on the National Ignition Facility

Boron Carbide (B4C) is a promising ablator material for inertial confinement fusion at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). B4C is an amorphous material with a density of 2.52g/cm^3, making it dense enough to be suitable for short drive pulses like High-Density-Carbon (HDC, 3.2g/cm^3) but without fabrication defects such as grain interstitials and voids. Additionally, B4C's low-melting temperature allows for implosion experiments to be fielded at adiabats lower than those achievable for HDC implosions. This presentation will outline the advancements made by target fabrication at Lawrence Livermore, experimental tests completed on the OMEGA laser, and progress in capsule and hohlraum modeling in preparation for spherical implosions at the NIF.