Control of fuel target implosion non-uniformity in heavy ion inertial fusion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using pulsating and dephasing heavy ion beams to generate oscillating implosion acceleration, effectively reducing non-uniformity and improving pellet gain in heavy ion inertial fusion.

Contribution

It proposes a new control technique for implosion non-uniformity using pulsating and dephasing heavy ion beams to generate beneficial oscillating acceleration.

Findings

Pulsating HIBs successfully create controlled dg(t).

Controlled dg(t) reduces implosion non-uniformity.

Pulsating HIBs significantly improve pellet gain.

Abstract

In inertial fusion, one of scientific issues is to reduce an implosion non-uniformity of a spherical fuel target. The implosion non-uniformity is caused by several factors, including the driver beam illumination non-uniformity, the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) growth, etc. In this paper we propose a new control method to reduce the implosion non-uniformity; the oscillating implosion acceleration dg(t) is created by pulsating and dephasing heavy ion beams (HIBs) in heavy ion inertial fusion (HIF). The dg(t) would reduce the RTI growth effectively. The original concept of the non- uniformity control in inertial fusion was proposed in (Kawata, et al., 1993). In this paper it was found that the pulsating and dephasing HIBs illumination provide successfully the controlled dg(t) and that dg(t) induced by the pulsating HIBs reduces well the implosion non-uniformity. Consequently the pulsating HIBs improve a pellet gain remarkably in HIF.