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Nuclear fusion

Fast heating scalable to laser fusion ignition

Nature volume 418, pages 933–934 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Rapid heating of a compressed fusion fuel by a short-duration laser pulse is a promising route to generating energy by nuclear fusion1, and has been demonstrated on an experimental scale using a novel fast-ignitor geometry2. Here we describe a refinement of this system in which a much more powerful, pulsed petawatt (1015 watts) laser creates a fast-heated core plasma that is scalable to full-scale ignition, significantly increasing the number of fusion events while still maintaining high heating efficiency at these substantially higher laser energies. Our findings bring us a step closer to realizing the production of relatively inexpensive, full-scale fast-ignition laser facilities.

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Figure 1: Fast heating of highly compressed plasmas with a petawatt (PW)-class laser pulse.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, 565-0871, Osaka, Japan

    R. Kodama

  2. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK

    H. Shiraga, K. Shigemori, Y. Toyama, S. Fujioka, H. Azechi, H. Fujita & H. Habara

  3. University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK

    T. Hall, K. L. Lancaster, K. Mima, K. Nagai, M. Nakai, H. Nishimura & T. Norimatsu

  4. Blacket Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ, UK

    Y. Izawa, T. Jitsuno, Y. Kitagawa, K. M. Krushelnick & K. L. Lancaster

  5. Institute of Laser Engineering and Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, 565-0871, Osaka, Japan

    S. Sakabe & K. A. Tanaka

  6. Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK

    A. Youssef, M. Zepf & T. Yamanaka

  7. The Fast-Ignitor Consortium,

    R. Kodama, H. Shiraga, K. Shigemori, Y. Toyama, S. Fujioka, H. Azechi, H. Fujita, H. Habara, T. Hall, Y. Izawa, T. Jitsuno, Y. Kitagawa, K. M. Krushelnick, K. L. Lancaster, K. Mima, K. Nagai, M. Nakai, H. Nishimura, T. Norimatsu, P. A. Norreys, P. A. Norreys, S. Sakabe, K. A. Tanaka, A. Youssef, M. Zepf & T. Yamanaka

Authors
  1. R. Kodama
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  2. H. Shiraga
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  3. K. Shigemori
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  4. Y. Toyama
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  7. H. Fujita
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  8. H. Habara
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  9. T. Hall
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  10. Y. Izawa
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  11. T. Jitsuno
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  12. Y. Kitagawa
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  13. K. M. Krushelnick
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  14. K. L. Lancaster
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  15. K. Mima
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  16. K. Nagai
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  17. M. Nakai
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  18. H. Nishimura
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  19. T. Norimatsu
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  20. P. A. Norreys
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  21. S. Sakabe
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  22. K. A. Tanaka
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  23. A. Youssef
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  24. M. Zepf
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  25. T. Yamanaka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Kodama.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Cite this article

Kodama, R., Shiraga, H., Shigemori, K. et al. Fast heating scalable to laser fusion ignition. Nature 418, 933–934 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/418933a

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