San Diego, California, 17-19 June 2002

Development of Prototype Samples of a Possible IFE Foam Capsule Target

Diana Schroen

Jon Streit

Schafer Corporation

Livermore, CA 94550

The current NRL IFE target design is based upon a polymer foam capsule with a full density polymer overcoat. Foam capsules have been produced from acrylate polymers (by ILE) and resorcinol-formaldehyde (by LLNL), but neither of these polymers are suitable for the NRL design. The design requires that the capsules be made of a pure CH polymer. The target is also much larger than previously produced capsules. We have begun producing prototype samples of 4 mm CH polymer foam capsules. The capsules are produced from polymerizing divinyl benzene at have been made at 100 mg/cm³ density. The full density polymer overcoat is applied using an interfacial polymerization. While the development is just beginning, we will show examples of capsules we have produced.