Laser boron fusion reactor with picosecond petawatt block ignition

TL;DR

This paper discusses a novel laser boron fusion reactor concept using picosecond petawatt laser pulses, focusing on plasma block generation and direct drive ignition without spherical irradiation issues.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach for laser boron fusion utilizing ultra-short, high-power laser pulses and direct drive ignition, avoiding spherical irradiation problems.

Findings

Plasma block generation via dielectric explosion is feasible.

Direct drive ignition with a single laser pulse is demonstrated.

Alpha particle stopping lengths support fusion efficiency.

Abstract

For developing a laser boron fusion reactor driven by picosecond laser pulses of more than 30 petawatts power, advances are reported about computations for the plasma block generation by the dielectric explosion of the interaction. Further results are about the direct drive ignition mechanism by a single laser pulse without the problems of spherical irradiation. For the sufficiently large stopping lengths of the generated alpha particles in the plasma results from other projects can be used.