Target study for heavy ion beam fusion

Abstract

Heavy ion beam driven implosion of multilayered, single-shell targets for inertial confinement fusion are investigated by ID-simulation. Features characteristic of heavy ion energy deposition are studied. The ion beam energy and the tamper/absorber configuration which give optimum hydrodynamic efficiency and fuel ignition are found for a reactor-size target. A comparison of different pulse shapes with and without prepulse is presented. Implosion by a single-box pulse is found to give superior hydrodynamic efficiency and spherical stability. In addition to these specific results, general features of ion driven implosions are discussed and a brief description of the target code MINIHY is given.