Plasma kinetics, pre-heat, and the emergence of strong shocks in laser fusion: the hydro-kinetic regime

The goal of Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) is to create and ignite a minute star. The energy liberated through thermonuclear fusion can be harnessed, providing mankind with an essentially limitless source of safe, sustainable, secure, carbon-free, electricity. If realised, laser-fusion would not only provide a solution to global warming, but enable the UK to become a net energy exporter, and also create a new market in ultra-high-tech technology exports in areas where the UK is currently world-leading, such as laser and targetry manufacture.

The multi-billion dollar National Ignition Facility (NIF) is currently the only laser which, in principal, has sufficient energy to achieve ignition (where the 'star' burns), although to-date NIF has not achieved ignition. The base-line 'indirect-drive' NIF design uses an array of laser beams to create x-rays in a metallic cylinder (hohlraum), these x-rays in turn ablate the spherical ICF target, driving a convergent implosion. This causes the target to be compressed, creating density and temperature conditions similar to those within the centre of the Sun, thereby igniting the 'star'. While there are some advantages to the indirect-drive approach to ICF, it is extremely inefficient, and it is currently unclear whether it will be possible to achieve indirect drive ignition with the laser energy available on NIF. Alternative ICF schemes exist including 'direct drive' and 'shock ignition'. Here, the lasers directly illuminate the target improving efficiency by a factor of ~5, meaning it should be possible to achieve ignition with NIF's energy. Shock ignition is a recently invented variant of direct drive. Here the implosion velocity can be lower than the minimum required for ignition, instead ignition is initiated by a strong shock launched towards the end of the implosion. Shock ignition has many potential advantages over other ICF schemes; the laser energy requirements for ignition are well within those possible on NIF, as the implosion velocity can be lower, the susceptibility to deleterious fluid instabilities (Rayleigh-Taylor) is also reduced. Importantly, the energy gain (fusion energy out/electrical energy in) should be sufficient for power generation.

Laser-plasma interaction instabilities (LPI) such as Stimulated Raman Scatter, Two Plasmon Decay and Stimulated Brillouin Scatter occur in all ICF schemes. These LPIs alter the temporospatial characteristics of laser absorption and can create significant populations of energetic (or hot) electrons. Determining the characteristics of the LPIs and the associated hot electrons is of critical importance for ICF as they dictate whether the fusion fuel will be heated prior to the fuel being compressed (pre-heat) - potentially precluding ignition - or whether the hot electrons' energy can be harnessed, enhancing shock generation in the shock ignition scheme, potentially leading to fusion energy gains sufficient for energy applications on today's lasers. This crucial area of ICF physics is the focus of this proposal.

New experiments on the Omega laser facility will measure the LPI and hot electron characteristics in the parameter spaces of ignition-scale direct drive and shock ignition. A key outcome will be the encapsulation of the experimental data in innovative new laser-plasma interaction and hot electron simulation models, which will run in-line with the UK's radiation-hydrodynamics code framework: Odin. These will significantly improve our predictive simulation capabilities, providing benchmarked, high-fidelity simulation tools which will be made openly available to the UK academic laser-plasma physics community. This work, with direct involvement and leadership of ICF experiments on large scale facilities, provides a clear route by which the UK community can attain the skills, expertise, and tools to develop next-generation ICF designs for, and execute experiments on, the world's largest largest lasers into the 2020s.

If laser fusion can be realised, it would provide mankind with an essentially limitless source of safe, sustainable, secure, carbon-free, electricity. It generates no high-level radioactive waste and has no risk of melt-down. Hence laser fusion - and in particular shock ignition - offers the potential for a genuine 'silver-bullet' solution to global warming. If such a solution to global warming is not found, its negative impact on mankind over the coming century will likely be huge. This project will accelerate laser fusion research both through the vital research we will perform, and equally importantly through the international collaborations we will foster and seek to grow.

As well as a clean energy source, laser fusion is a huge potential source of ultra-high-tech wealth creation. Were this technology realised, UK industry would stand to benefit significantly through this project; the fuel - which is extracted from seawater - and targetry can be manufactured within the UK and exported internationally, this contrasts the current UK fossil fuel market which is a net importer. Ultra-high precision targetry and laser drivers - largely developed in the context of laser fusion - already contribute to UK exports; these would almost certainly increase significantly were laser fusion to become a commercial reality. Through this project we will enhance industrial expertise in laser fusion; as our identified target manufacturer (Scitech Precison Ltd.) is based within the UK, this project will further develop the skills and expertise within the UK industrial sector that will be required to manufacture laser fusion targetry. Importantly this will give UK industry a head start in the event that laser fusion energy gain is demonstrated.

Recent innovations emerging from the field of laser-plasma interactions have attracted UK industrial investment in new high-power laser facilities at the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK. Areas of innovation include the development of advanced x-ray light sources, which have potential applications in both healthcare (e.g. in vivo osteoporosis diagnosis) and defence (e.g. mine detection), while laser-generated proton and carbon beams have the potential for healthcare technologies (e.g. proton oncology). This project will directly benefit these innovations by providing the researchers with the cutting-edge simulation tools required to accurately model the underlying physics.

This project will train two PDRAs and three PhD students. Skills learned will include; working within an international collaborative team environment, software engineering, technical training, performance modelling, planning, communication, data analysis and numerical skills. As trained professional scientists they could have a significant impact on the UK's HPC lead industrial and financial sectors. Their scientific programming skills, data analysis skills, and technical training would also make them ideally suited to employment in high tech SMEs.

A direct beneficiary of this work will be the AWE. This project will enable them to evaluate the code developments we incorporate into the Odin framework before deciding whether these are appropriate for their own radiation-hydrodynamics code development plans.

Extensive wiki-style documentation about laser fusion on our collaboration website will provide the general public and students with an educational tool on this exciting area of physics.