Cryogenic inertial confinement fusion target fabrication system directly operable inside a room-temperature target chamber

Abstract

An inertial confinement fusion (ICF) target freezing system, which is capable of fabricating a uniform layer of DT condensate inside a glass microshell, has been developed using cold helium gas jets. The system marks a significant improvement on the existing target freezing systems for the following reasons: first, it does not require cryogenic shields; second, it is directly operable inside a room-temperature target chamber; third, it maintains the integrity of a cryogenic target for as long as desired; fourth, since a bare target can be directly positioned inside the target chamber with no enclosure, implosion of the target using energetic beams (e.g., laser) can easily be achieved at any instant. Description of the system and some results illustrating its performance are presented along with their future applications.