High-Energy-Density Testing

World-Class Testing Facilities

LLNL’s High-Energy-Density (HED) Testing enables LLNL scientists and research partners to better understand material behavior at extreme temperatures and pressures to support stockpile stewardship as well as scientific advances in planetary science, energy sustainability, and other fields.

3 physicists working on an experiment

Facility Spotlight

Exterior of the NIF Facility

National Ignition Facility (NIF)

Experiments in these extreme conditions inform and validate weapon-simulation computer codes and advance discoveries in inertial fusion energy, materials science, hydrodynamics, and astrophysics.

scientist working on an experiment in the Jupiter Laser Facility

Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF)

The Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) provides ultra-intense, petawatt-class laser systems with diverse capabilities including short-pulse beams coupled with a kilojoule-class long-pulse beam, nanosecond kilojoule-class beams, and laboratory x-ray beams. JLF offers significant experimental flexibility, high laser shot rates, and direct user operation of experiments.

NIF's Extreme Experimental Conditions

optics icon, 40,000 Optics guide and focus 192 laser beams...
hohlraum icon ...into a pencil eraser-sized target in billionths of a second...
laser icon ...to deliver a controlled thermonuclear reaction...
sun's core icon ...that is over 6 times hotter than the sun's core!
500 Trillion watts of peak power
More than 2 Million joules of ultraviolet energy
Target pressures exceeding 100 Billion times Earth's atmosphere

Partner Facilities

Omega EP Laser

OMEGA Extended
Performance Laser

Implosion and basic physics experiments for the National Inertial Confinement Fusion Program.

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Z Machine at Sandia National Lab

Sandia Laboratories'
Z Machine

Pulsed-power radiation source for HED research.

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SLAC National Accelerator Lab

SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory

Particle accelerator generating bright x-rays for broad scientific discovery.

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