Abstract
Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are used to explore collisionless shock acceleration in the corona plasma surrounding the compressed core of an inertial confinement fusion pellet. We show that an intense laser pulse interacting with the long scale-length plasma corona is able to launch a collisionless shock around the critical density. The nonlinear wave travels up-ramp through the plasma reflecting and accelerating the background ions. Our results suggest that protons with characteristics suitable for ion fast ignition may be achieved in this way.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.
Highlights
The fast ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) was first proposed as an alternative to conventional schemes where ignition in the deuterium–tritium pellet is achieved via hydrodynamic compression [1]
Hydrodynamic simulations indicate that to reach ignition the energy deposited in the core must be greater than or equal to 140(ρ/100 [g cm−3])−1.85 kJ, with ρ the mass density of the compressed deuterium–tritium core [9]
We presented two-dimensional PIC simulations modelling the interaction of a near-infrared intense laser pulse with the ICF corona plasma
Summary
The fast ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) was first proposed as an alternative to conventional schemes where ignition in the deuterium–tritium pellet is achieved via hydrodynamic compression [1]. For densities in the range 300–500 g cm−3, the energy necessary to reach ignition varies between 7 and 20 kJ This energy must be delivered in a time shorter than the hot spot expansion time R0/cs, where R0 is the radius of the compressed pellet, cs 3.5 × 107 T0 [keV] cm s−1 the sound speed and T0 the electron temperature. In order for the ions to deposit the right amount of energy necessary to produce the ignition spark, the use of multiple laser beams could be envisaged The latter will lead to multiple shocks in the corona, reducing the energy requirements of a single laser to provide sufficient ion flux to ignite the fuel
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