Shang W L, Betti R, Hu S X, Woo K, Hao L, Ren C, Christopherson A R, Bose A, Theobald W
Fusion Science Center and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Nov 10;119(19):195001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.195001. Epub 2017 Nov 7.
It is shown that inertial confinement fusion targets designed with low implosion velocities can be shock-ignited using laser-plasma interaction generated hot electrons (hot-e's) to obtain high energy gains. These designs are robust to multimode asymmetries and are predicted to ignite even for significantly distorted implosions. Electron shock ignition requires tens of kilojoules of hot-e's which can be produced only at a large laser facility like the National Ignition Facility, with the laser-to-hot-e conversion efficiency greater than 10% at laser intensities ∼10^{16} W/cm^{2}.
