Direct drive heavy-ion-beam inertial fusion at high coupling efficiency

Journal Article · Tue Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2950303· OSTI ID:21268973

Logan, B G ^[1]; Perkins, L J; Barnard, J J ^[2]

---

1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)

Issues with coupling efficiency, beam illumination symmetry, and Rayleigh-Taylor instability are discussed for spherical heavy-ion-beam-driven targets with and without hohlraums. Efficient coupling of heavy-ion beams to compress direct-drive inertial fusion targets without hohlraums is found to require ion range increasing several-fold during the drive pulse. One-dimensional implosion calculations using the LASNEX inertial confinement fusion target physics code shows the ion range increasing fourfold during the drive pulse to keep ion energy deposition following closely behind the imploding ablation front, resulting in high coupling efficiencies (shell kinetic energy/incident beam energy of 16% to 18%). Ways to increase beam ion range while mitigating Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are discussed for future work.

• OSTI ID: 21268973
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 15; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
COUPLING
EFFICIENCY
HEAVY IONS
ICF DEVICES
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY