Fast ignition of inertial fusion targets by laser-driven carbon beams

Abstract

Two-dimensional simulations of ion beam driven fast ignition are presented. Ignition energies of protons with Maxwellian spectrum and carbon ions with quasimonoenergetic and Maxwellian energy distributions are evaluated. The effect of the coronal plasma surrounding the compressed deuterium-tritium is studied for three different fuel density distributions. It is found that quasi- monoenergetic ions have better coupling with the compressed deuterium-tritium and substantially lower ignition energies. Comparison of quasimonoenergetic carbon ions and relativistic electrons as ignitor beams shows similar laser energy requirements, provided that a laser to quasimonoenergetic carbon ion conversion efficiency around 10% can be achieved.

8 pages, 10 figures, published in Physics of Plasmas

References in corpus (3)

• Radiation Pressure Acceleration of Thin Foils with Circularly Polarized Laser Pulses
• Hole boring in a DT pellet and fast ion ignition with ultra-intense laser pulses
• Fast ignition of fusion targets by laser-driven electrons

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Ion beam requirements for fast ignition of inertial fusion targets
• Fast ignition driven by quasi-monoenergetic ions: Optimal ion type and reduction of ignition energies with an ion beam array
• Collisionless shock acceleration in the corona of an inertial confinement fusion pellet with possible application to ion fast ignition
• Electron and ion acceleration from femtosecond laser-plasma peeler scheme
• Acceleration and focusing of multispecies ion beam using a converging laser-driven shock