Relativistic hole boring and fast ion ignition with ultra-intense laser pulses

Abstract

An analytical model and numerical simulations demonstrate that pulses with intensities exceeding 1022 W/cm2 may penetrate deeply into the plasma and accelerate efficiently ions in the forward direction. We propose a new scheme for fast ignition of precompressed DT fusion targets by using two laser pulses. The first pulse (or a sequence of several pulses) creates a channel with diameter ∼ 30μm through the plasma corona up to the fuel density ∼ 1 g/cm3. The second pulse with a higher intensity accelerates the deuterium and tritium ions at the head of this channel. The overall ignition energy is ∼ 100 kJ. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.