Strong shock generation by fast electron energy deposition

Abstract

It has been suggested that fast electrons may play a beneficial role in the formation of the ignitor shock in shock ignition owing to the high areal density of the fuel at the time of the ignitor pulse. In this paper, we extend previous studies which have focused on monoenergetic electron sources to populations with extended energy distributions. In good agreement with analytic scalings, we show that strong shocks can be produced with peak pressures of a few hundred Mbar to over 1 Gbar using fast electron intensities of 1–10 PW/cm2 in a uniform deuterium-tritium plasma at 10 g/cm3. However, the length required for shock formation increases with fast electron temperature. As this shock formation distance becomes comparable to the target size, the shock is not able to fully develop, and this implies a limit on the ability of fast electrons to aid shock formation.