explosivelens

Explosivelens, often written as explosive lens, refers to an assembly of high-explosive charges arranged to shape a detonation wave for symmetrical implosion. The lens combines fast and slow explosive materials in specific geometries so that the outward detonation wave accelerates at different rates across the lens, producing a converging, near-spherical wave that compresses an interior core.

Historically, explosive lenses were developed during the Manhattan Project in the 1940s to enable uniform compression of a plutonium core in implosion-type nuclear weapons. The Fat Man device employed this concept to achieve the high pressures required for plutonium fusion. After the war, the technology informed both military testing programs and theoretical shock-wave physics; the approach also influenced inertial confinement fusion research, where precise, timed shocks are used to compress fuel capsules.

Safety, security, and regulatory constraints limit discussion and reproduction of explosive-lens technology; details on materials, geometries, or assembly are restricted. In civilian contexts, the term is used mainly in historical and general scientific discussions of high-explosive physics and shock-wave shaping.