The Potential of Fast Ignition and Related Experiments with A Petawatt Laser Facility

Key, M.H.
Campbell, E.M.
Cowan, T.E.
Hatchett, S.P.
Henry, E.A.
Koch, J.A.
Langdon, A.B.
Lasinski, B.F.
MacKinnon, A.
Offenberger, A.A.
Pennington, D.M.
Perry, M. D.
Phillips, T.J.
Sangster, T.C.
Singh, M.S.
Snavely, R.A.
Stoyer, M.A.
Tsukamoto, M.
Wharton, K.B.
Wilks, S.C.

Publication date

April 2000

Publisher

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Abstract

A model of energy gain induced by fast ignition of thermonuclear burn in compressed deuterium-tritium fuel, is used to show the potential for 300x gain with a driver energy of 1 M J, if the National Ignition Facility (NIF) were to be adapted for fast ignition. The physics of fast ignition has been studied using a petawatt laser facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Laser plasma interaction in a preformed plasma on a solid target leads to relativistic self-focusing evidenced by x-ray images. Absorption of the laser radiation transfers energy to an intense source of relativistic electrons. Good conversion efficiency into a wide angular distribution is reported. Heating by the electrons in solid density CD{sub 2} produces 0.5...