Research Interests

My research focuses on high energy density (HED) physics, particularly hydrodynamic instabilities, turbulence, and the development of advanced X-ray diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). I work on experimental campaigns studying the Richtmyer-Meshkov and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities at extreme energy densities, with applications to both fusion energy and astrophysical phenomena.

Much of my work centers on time-resolved X-ray imaging diagnostics. I contributed to developing the Dilation X-ray Imager (DIXI) and related pulse-dilation instruments that provide picosecond-scale measurements of implosion dynamics at NIF. These diagnostics have supported NIF's experimental program, including measurements that contributed to the facility's achievement of fusion ignition.

I currently lead the High-Resolution Turbulence campaign, a collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory investigating turbulent mixing in HED environments, and serve as scientific lead for dynamic X-ray detectors at NIF. My research interests include connecting laboratory HED experiments with astrophysical observations and developing improved diagnostic capabilities for current and future facilities.

 

Personal Background

Sabrina Nagel, PhD, started studying physics at the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Germany, in 2000. After three years she transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, USA and received a M.A. in physics in 2004. In 2009 she received a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Imperial College London, UK. Her thesis work studied electron acceleration mechanisms in relativistic laser-plasma interactions. After finishing her Ph.D., she worked as a research associate in the Plasma Physics Group at Imperial College London. In February 2011, she joined the HED Shock Physics Group at LLNL as a postdoc, where her research included dilation x-ray imaging. She has been working on x-ray detectors for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) that can take images of implosions with unprecedented temporal resolution. Sabrina became a group leader in the Physics division in 2018. She is the physics lead of the dynamic x-ray detector group for NIF and works closely with engineering and operations.

 

Ph.D., Plasma Physics, Imperial College London, UK, 2009

M.S., Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 2004

B.S., Physics, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Germany, 2000

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