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Title: Low Fuel Convergence Path to Direct-Drive Fusion Ignition

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
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A new class of inertial fusion capsules is presented that combines multishell targets with laser direct drive at low intensity (2.8 × 1014 W/cm2) to achieve robust ignition. The targets consist of three concentric, heavy, metal shells, enclosing a volume of tens of μg of liquid deuterium-tritium fuel. Ignition is designed to occur well “upstream” from stagnation, with minimal pusher deceleration to mitigate interface Rayleigh-Taylor growth. As a result, laser intensities below thresholds for laser plasma instability and cross beam energy transfer facilitate high hydrodynamic efficiency (~10%).

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE (originally DOE/LANL); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1410615
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1259339
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-20796; PRLTAO; TRN: US1800136
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 25; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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conference January 1994
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Cited By (6)

Laser-direct-drive program: Promise, challenge, and path forward journal March 2017
The physics of long- and intermediate-wavelength asymmetries of the hot spot: Compression hydrodynamics and energetics journal October 2017
Stable and confined burn in a Revolver ignition capsule journal August 2018
Design considerations for indirectly driven double shell capsules journal September 2018
First experiments on Revolver shell collisions at the OMEGA laser journal July 2019
First experiments on Revolver shell collisions at the OMEGA Laser text January 2019

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