Simulations of inertial confinement fusion driven by a novel synchrotron-radiation-based x-ray igniter

Abstract

The advantages and challenges of using a powerful x-ray source for the fast ignition of compressed Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) targets have been considered. The requirements for such a source together with the optics to focus the x-rays onto compressed DT cores lead to a conceptual design based on Energy Recovery Linacs (ERLs) and long wigglers to produce x-ray pulses with the appropriate phase space properties. A comparative assessment of the parameters of the igniter system indicates that the technologies for building it, although expensive, are physically achievable. Our x-ray fast ignition (XFI) scheme requires substantially smaller energy for the initiation of nuclear fusion reactions than other methods.

Ignition criteria for x-ray fast ignition inertial confinement fusion

“…Recently, at least two papers 4,5 have been published suggesting that using non-thermal soft x-rays rather than an electron or ion beam for FI could further reduce the ignition energy by an order of magnitude. Hu et al 4 claim to be able to achieve ignition on OMEGA-and NIF-scale targets at laser energies several times below those predicted by the well known formula for electron-beam-driven FI 6 :…”