Interaction of a self-focused laser beam with a DT fusion target in a plasma-loaded cone-guided ICF scheme

Abstract

In this paper, the interaction of a self-focused laser beam with a DT fusion target in a plasma-loaded cone-guided ICF scheme has been presented. We propose here to merge a plasma-loaded cone with the precompressed DT target in order to strongly focus the incident laser beam on the core to improve the fusion gain. The WKB approximation is used to derive a differential equation that governs the evolution of beamwidth of the incident laser beam with the distance of propagation in the plasma medium. The effects of initial plasma and laser parameters, such as initial plasma electron temperature, initial radius of the laser beam, initial laser beam intensity and plasma density, on self-focusing and defocusing of the Gaussian laser beam have been studied. Numerical results indicate that with increasing the plasma frequency (or plasma density) in the cone, the laser beam will be self-focused noticeably, while for a thinner laser beam (with small radius), it will diverge as propagate in the cone. By evaluating the energy deposition of the relativistic electron ignitors in the fuel, the importance of electron transportation in the cone-attached shell was demonstrated. Moreover, by lessening the least energy needed for ignition, the electrons coupling with the pellet enhances. Therefore, it increases the fusion efficiency. In this scheme, with employing a plasma-loaded cone, the fusion process improves without needing an ultrahigh-intensity laser beam in a conventional ICF.