Deleterious effects of nonthermal electrons in shock ignition concept.

Shock ignition concept is a promising approach to inertial confinement fusion that may allow obtaining high fusion energy gains with the existing laser technology. However, the spike driving laser intensities in the range of I-10 PW/cm² produces the energetic electrons that may have a significant effect on the target performance. The hybrid numerical simulations including a radiation hydrodynamic code coupled to a rapid Fokker-Planck module are used to asses the role of hot electrons in the shock generation and the target preheat in the time scale of 100 ps and spatial scale of 100 /xm. It is shown that depending on the electron energy distribution and the target density profile the hot electrons can either increase the shock amplitude or preheat the imploding shell. In particular, the exponential electron energy spectrum corresponding to the temperature of 30 keV in the present HiPER target design preheats the deuterium-tritium shell and jeopardizes its compression. Ways of improving the target performance are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]