Proton fast ignition, a variant of laser-driven inertial confinement fusion potentially providing much higher energy gain with lower driver energies, will be studied with the aim of optimising the conversion efficiency of the short-pulse laser into proton beam energy, which needs to carry at least 15kJ at several MeV into a compressed DT fuel pellet in order to trigger ignition.
It is proposed to investigate this process in realistic (up to millimetre-scale) geometries using multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation with the EPOCH code.
The project will be led by Focused Energy GmbH, a fusion startup based in Darmstadt, Germany founded in August 2021, with contributions from major EU and US public laboratories and university groups.
Country and Research Team Institutions
Focused Energy GmbH, Germany;