Introduction to Inertial Confinement Fusion fills this gap with an overview of the processes involved in ICF presented at an accessible level.

Features:

• Presents a thorough overview of the field of ICF, focusing on the core of conventional understanding
• Provides a brief overview of relevant plasma physics phenomena
• Explores the ICF process from laser drivers and absorption of laser light to burn physics and applications
• Offers a look at the potential future directions of the field

Contents

Fundamentals of Inertial Confinement Fusion

• What happens in the sun?
• Can one produce energy on Earth like in the sun?
• The two approaches - Magnetic vs. Inertial Confinement
• Stages in inertial confinement fusion

Laser Drivers for ICF

• Basics of laser physics
• Lasers for ICF applications
• Nd-glass lasers for ICF
• Alternatives to Nd-glass lasers

Basic Plasma Physics

• Debye length and plasma frequency
• Particle description
• Fluid description
• Plasma waves
• Plasma heating
• The ponderomotive force
• Shock waves
• Equation of state for dense plasmas

Absorption of Laser Light

• Coupling of the laser energy to the target
• Inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption
• Resonance absorption
• Parametric instabilities
• Indirect drive: coupling laser energy to the hohlraum
• Energy transport

Hydrodynamic Compression and Burn

• Implosion of solid target
• Foil target
• Rocket Model and Ablation
• Compression wave - Shock front - Shock wave
• Compression phase
• Spherically convergent shock waves
• Isentropic compression
• Multiple shocks
• Burn

Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities

• RT in the ablation phase
• RT instabilities in the deceleration phase
• Consequences for target design
• Idealized RT instabilities vs. ICF situation
• Other dynamic instabilities

Energy Requirements and Gain

• Power balance
• Energy requirements
• Gain

Targets

• Basic considerations for target design
• Direct and indirect-drive targets
• Direct-drive targets
• Indirect-drive targets
• Target fabrication

ICF Power Plant

• Power plant design
• Plant efficiency
• Target chamber
• Target fabrication for power plant
• Safety issues

Heavy-Ion Driven Fusion

• Heavy-ion drivers
• Ion beam energy deposition
• Target design for heavy-ion drivers
• Heavy-ion power plant
• Light-ion drivers

Fast Ignitor

• Fast-ignitor vs. hot-spot concept
• Hole boring or laser cone guiding?
• O-center ignition

Index

click here to see books • videos • cd-roms of related interest