Latest results on laser-driven inertial confinement fusion

durch Prof. Ricardo Betti (Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester)

Mittwoch 15.12.2021, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Recent progress in both direct- and indirect-drive ICF (inertial confinement fusion) has considerably improved the prospects for achieving thermonuclear ignition and energy gains with megajoule-class lasers. Recent implosions on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using the indirect drive approach have achieved about 1.3MJ of fusion yield and core conditions that can be interpreted as ignition of the DT fuel. When hydrodynamically scaled to NIF laser energies, recent direct-drive implosions on OMEGA are also expected to produce close to 1MJ of fusion yield and about 80% of the Lawson triple product required for ignition. Those implosions have benefited from a significant increase in implosion performance obtained through a statistical approach used in designing OMEGA targets and laser pulse shapes. An overview of the current status of laser drive ICF, both direct and indirect drive, will be presented.

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