  We examine the performance of pure boron, boron carbide, high density carbon,
and boron nitride ablators in the polar direct drive exploding pusher (PDXP)
platform. The platform uses the polar direct drive configuration at the
National Ignition Facility to drive high ion temperatures in a room temperature
capsule and has potential applications for plasma physics studies and as a
neutron source. The higher tensile strength of these materials compared to
plastic enables a thinner ablator to support higher gas pressures, which could
help optimize its performance for plasma physics experiments, while ablators
containing boron enable the possiblity of collecting addtional data to
constrain models of the platform. Applying recently developed and
experimentally validated equation of state models for the boron materials, we
examine the performance of these materials as ablators in 2D simulations, with
particular focus on changes to the ablator and gas areal density, as well as
the predicted symmetry of the inherently 2D implosion.
