Enhanced energy coupling for indirect-drive fast-ignition fusion targets

One of the most promising approaches to reach a high gain in inertial confinement fusion is the fast ignition scheme. In this scheme, a relativistic electron beam is generated; this passes through the imploded plasma and deposits parts of its energy in the core. However, the large angular spread of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2020-07, Vol.16 (7), p.810-814
Main Authors: Zhang, F., Cai, H. B., Zhou, W. M., Dai, Z. S., Shan, L. Q., Xu, H., Chen, J. B., Ge, F. J., Tang, Q., Zhang, W. S., Wei, L., Liu, D. X., Gu, J. F., Du, H. B., Bi, B., Wu, S. Z., Li, J., Lu, F., Zhang, H., Zhang, B., He, M. Q., Yu, M. H., Yang, Z. H., Wang, W. W., Zhang, H. S., Cui, B., Yang, L., Wu, J. F., Qi, W., Cao, L. H., Li, Z., Liu, H. J., Yang, Y. M., Ren, G. L., Tian, C., Yuan, Z. Q., Zheng, W. D., Cao, L. F., Zhou, C. T., Zou, S. Y., Gu, Y. Q., Du, K., Ding, Y. K., Zhang, B. H., Zhu, S. P., Zhang, W. Y., He, X. T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/4077
639/766/1960/1135
Atomic
Classical and Continuum Physics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Coupling
Experiments
High gain
Ignition
Implosions
Inertial confinement fusion
Magnetic fields
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Relativistic effects
Relativistic electron beams
Theoretical
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Summary:One of the most promising approaches to reach a high gain in inertial confinement fusion is the fast ignition scheme. In this scheme, a relativistic electron beam is generated; this passes through the imploded plasma and deposits parts of its energy in the core. However, the large angular spread of the relativistic electron beam and the poorly controlled compression of the target affect realization of the fast ignition technique. Here, we demonstrate that indirectly driven (that is, driven by X-rays generated inside a gold hohlraum) implosions with a ‘high-foot’ and a short-coast time of less than 200 ps allow us to tightly compress the shell. Furthermore, we show the ability to optimize the symmetry of the imploding shell by changing the hohlraum length, successfully tuning a suitable tube-shaped shell to compensate for the large angular spread of the relativistic electron beam and to enhance the electron-to-core coupling efficiency via resistive magnetic fields. Benefiting from those experimental techniques, a significant enhancement in neutron yield was achieved in our indirectly driven fast ignition experiments. These results pave the way towards high-coupling fast ignition experiments with indirectly driven targets similar to those at the National Ignition Facility. Experiments realizing the indirect-drive fast ignition scheme for inertial confinement fusion are reported. Enabled by a tightly compressed target, an increase of neutron yield is observed.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/s41567-020-0878-9