Shock ignition of thermonuclear fuel: principles and modelling

Atzeni, S.; Ribeyre, X.; Schurtz, G.; Schmitt, A. J.; Canaud, B.; Betti, R.; Perkins, L.J.

doi:10.1088/0029-5515/54/5/054008

Cited by 71 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 117 publications

(293 reference statements)

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“…Shock ignition (SI) [1][2][3][4][5] is an advanced concept in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) 6 that is promising and has the potential to provide significantly higher gains than conventional hot-spot ignition. 7 SI is a two-step process where the fuel compression and ignition phases are separated by applying a highly shaped laser pulse with a duration of several nanoseconds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current status and the physics issues of the SI concept are reviewed in two articles that recently appeared in Nuclear Fusion. 5,10 A critical component for SI is the strength of the ignitor shock, which depends on the energy coupling of the spike pulse. The laser-energy coupling into the target is not well understood at high-spike laser intensities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spherical strong-shock generation for shock-ignition inertial fusion

et al. 2015

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Recent experiments on the Laboratory for Laser Energetics' OMEGA laser have been carried out to produce strong shocks in solid spherical targets with direct laser illumination. The shocks are launched at pressures of several hundred Mbars and reach Gbar upon convergence. The results are relevant to the validation of the shock-ignition scheme and to the development of an OMEGA experimental platform to study material properties at Gbar pressures. The experiments investigate the strength of the ablation pressure and the hot-electron production at incident laser intensities of $2 to 6 Â 10 15 W/cm 2 and demonstrate ablation pressures exceeding 300 Mbar, which is crucial to developing a shockignition target design for the National Ignition Facility. The timing of the x-ray flash from shock convergence in the center of the solid plastic target is used to infer the ablation and shock pressures. Laser-plasma instabilities produce hot-electrons with a moderate temperature (<100 keV). The instantaneous conversion efficiencies of laser power into hot-electron power reached up to $15% in the intensity spike. The large amount of hot electrons is correlated with an earlier x-ray flash and a strong increase in its magnitude. This suggests that hot electrons contribute to the augmentation of the shock strength. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spherical strong-shock generation for shock-ignition inertial fusion

et al. 2015

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“…SI is an alternative scheme to ignite pre-compressed fuel in an efficient and robust way, relaxing conditions on the degree of compression and illumination symmetry with respect to standard direct or indirect drive [9][10][11] . Differently from standard approaches it relies on a short, high-intensity pulse to drive an additional shock which collides with the rebound of the compression shock and allows the creation of a hotspot and thereby ignition of the fuel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature dependence of parametric instabilities in the context of the shock-ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion

Weber

Riconda

2015

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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The role of the coronal electron plasma temperature for shock-ignition conditions is analysed with respect to the dominant parametric processes: stimulated Brillouin scattering, stimulated Raman scattering, two-plasmon decay (TPD), Langmuir decay instability (LDI) and cavitation. TPD instability and cavitation are sensitive to the electron temperature. At the same time the reflectivity and high-energy electron production are strongly affected. For low plasma temperatures the LDI plays a dominant role in the TPD saturation. An understanding of laser-plasma interaction in the context of shock ignition is an important issue due to the localization of energy deposition by collective effects and hot electron production. This in turn can have consequences for the compression phase and the resulting gain factor of the implosion phase.

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“…Due to the intrinsic difficulty of resolving the different time scales involved in SBS and SRS, many studies prefer to focus either on SRS evolution and saturation [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] , or SBS evolution and saturation by itself [19][20][21][22][23][24] . The analysis of parametric instabilities in this paper is mostly of relevance to large-scale, homogeneous plasmas as in intense speckle in indirect-drive conditions [25] , or in the low-density part in shock-ignition conditions [26][27][28][29] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman–Brillouin interplay for inertial confinement fusion relevant laser–plasma interaction

Riconda

Weber

2016

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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The co-existence of the Raman and Brillouin backscattering instability is an important issue for inertial confinement fusion. The present paper presents extensive one-dimensional (1D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for a wide range of parameters extending and complementing previous findings. PIC simulations show that the scenario of reflectivity evolution and saturation is very sensitive to the temperatures, intensities, size of plasma and boundary conditions employed. The Langmuir decay instability is observed for rather small k epw λ D but has no influence on the saturation of Brillouin backscattering, although there is a clear correlation of Langmuir decay instability modes and ion-fractional decay for certain parameter ranges. Raman backscattering appears at any intensity and temperature but is only a transient phenomenon. In several configurations forward as well as backward Raman scattering is observed. For the intensities considered, I λ 2 o above 10 15 W µm 2 /cm 2 , Raman is always of bursty nature. A particular setup allows the simulation of multi-speckle aspects in which case it is found that Raman is self-limiting due to strong modifications of the distribution function. Kinetic effects are of prime importance for Raman backscattering at high temperatures. No unique scenario for the saturation of Raman scattering or Raman-Brillouin competition does exist. The main effect in the considered parameter range is pump depletion because of large Brillouin backscattering. However, in the low k epw λ D regime the presence of ion-acoustic waves due to the Langmuir decay instability from the Raman created electron plasma waves can seed the ion-fractional decay and affect the Brillouin saturation.

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Shock ignition of thermonuclear fuel: principles and modelling

Cited by 71 publications

References 117 publications

Spherical strong-shock generation for shock-ignition inertial fusion

Spherical strong-shock generation for shock-ignition inertial fusion

Temperature dependence of parametric instabilities in the context of the shock-ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion

Raman–Brillouin interplay for inertial confinement fusion relevant laser–plasma interaction

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