[Table of Contents]

Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 4, 016 (2009)

Review Articles

Energy Injection for Fast Ignition
Richard B. STEPHENS, Kramer U. AKLI, Teresa BARTAL1), Farhat N. BEG1), Sugreev CHAWLA1), Cliff D. CHEN2), Hui CHEN3), Sophia CHEN1), Bradley CHRISMAN4), Richard R. FREEMAN5), Daniel HEY3), Michael KEY3), Andreas KEMP3), James KING1), Katherine LANCASTER6), Sebastien LePAPE3), Anthony LINK5), Tammy MA1), Andy MACKINNON3), Andrew MACPHEE3), Peter NORREYS6), Dustin OFFERMAN5), Vladimir OVCHINNIKOV5), John PASLEY1), Prav PATEL3), Douglas SCHUMACHER5), Yasuhiko SENTOKU4), Ying TSUI7), Scott WILKS3), Linn Van WOERKOM5), Ming-Sheng WEI1) and Toshinori YABUUCHI1)
General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego CA 92186 USA
1)
Center for Energy Research, University of California, San Diego CA 92093 USA
2)
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA 02139 USA
3)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA 94550 USA
4)
Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno NV 89557 USA
5)
Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus OH 43210 USA
6)
CCLRC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxon, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
7)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta T6G 2V4 Canada
(Received 18 December 2008 / Accepted 15 January 2009 / Published 7 May 2009)

Abstract

In the fast ignition concept, assembled fuel is ignited through a separate high intensity laser pulse. Fast Ignition targets facilitate this ignition using a reentrant cone. It provides clear access through the overlaying coronal plasma, and controls the laser plasma interaction to optimize hot-electron production and transport into the compressed plasma. Recent results suggest that the cone does not play any role in guiding light or electrons to its tip, and coupling to electrons can be reduced by a small amount of preplasma. This puts stringent requirements on the ignition laser focusing, pointing, and prepulse.

Keywords

fast-ignition

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.4.016

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Richard B. STEPHENS, Kramer U. AKLI, Teresa BARTAL, Farhat N. BEG, Sugreev CHAWLA, Cliff D. CHEN, Hui CHEN, Sophia CHEN, Bradley CHRISMAN, Richard R. FREEMAN, Daniel HEY, Michael KEY, Andreas KEMP, James KING, Katherine LANCASTER, Sebastien LePAPE, Anthony LINK, Tammy MA, Andy MACKINNON, Andrew MACPHEE, Peter NORREYS, Dustin OFFERMAN, Vladimir OVCHINNIKOV, John PASLEY, Prav PATEL, Douglas SCHUMACHER, Yasuhiko SENTOKU, Ying TSUI, Scott WILKS, Linn Van WOERKOM, Ming-Sheng WEI and Toshinori YABUUCHI, Plasma Fusion Res. 4, 016 (2009).