Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T11:29:45.842Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heavy-ion accelerators for inertial confinement fusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

Carlo Rubbia
Carlo Rubbia
Affiliation:
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two concepts have been applied to the classical problem of accelerators for the ignition of indirectly driven inertial fusion. The first is the use of non-Liouvillian stacking based on photoionisation of a singly charged ion beam. A special FEL appears the most suited device to generate the appropriate light beam intensity at the required wavelength. The second is based on the use of a large number of (>1000) beamlets–or “beam straws”–all focussed by an appropriate magnetic structure and concentrated on the same spot on the pellet. The use of a large number of beams–each with a relatively low-current density–elegantly circumvents the problems of space charge, making use of the non-Liouvillian nature of the stopping power of the material of the pellet. The present conceptual design is based on a low-current (〈i〉 ≈ 50 mA) heavy-ion beam accelerated with a standard LINAC structure and accumulated in a stack of rings with the help of photoionisation. Beams are then extracted simultaneously from all the rings and further subdivided with the help of a switchyard of alternate paths separating and synchronising the many bunches from each ring before they hit the pellet. Single beam straws carry a reasonable number of ions: Beams and technology are directly relatable to the ones presently employed, for instance, at the CERN-PS. Space-charge-dominated conditions arise only during the last few turns before extraction and in the beam transport channel to the reaction chamber. In a practical example, we aim at a peak power of 500 TW delivered to the pellet for a duration of 10–15 ns. High-energy (10 GeV) beam straws of Ba doubly ionised ions are concentrated on several (four) focal spots of a radius of about 1 mm. The power density deposited on these tiny cylindrical absorbers inside a hermetic “hohlraum” is about 2.5 × 1016 w/g. These conditions are believed to be optimal for X-ray conversion, i.e., with an estimated conversion efficiency of about 90%.

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 391 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arnold, R.C. & Meyer-Ter-Vehn, J. (1987) Rep. Progr. Phys. 50, 559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atzeni, S. 1990 Europhys. Lett. 11, 639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atzeni, S. 1991a Laser and Particle Beams 9, 233–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atzeni, S. 1991b Particle Accel. (in press).Google Scholar
Barbini, R. et al. 1990 ENEA Report RT/INN/90/35, ENEA, Frascati.Google Scholar
Bock, R. 1993 Laser and Particle Beams 11, (in press).Google Scholar
Bonifacio, R. et al. 1990 Sezione di Milano preprint (unpublished).Google Scholar
Caruso, A. 1989 In Inertial Confinement Fusion, Caruso, A. and Sindoni, E., eds. (Compositori-SIF, Bologna), p. 139.Google Scholar
Davison, R.C. & Krall, N.A. 1970 Phys. Fluids 13, 1543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gluckstern, R.L. et al. Proceedings of the 1970 National Accelerator Lab. Linear Accelerator Conf. (FNAL), Vol. 2, p. 823.Google Scholar
Hofmann, D.H.H. et al. 1988 Z. Phys. A 330, 339.Google Scholar
Hofmann, I. et al. 1983 Particle Accel. 13, 145.Google Scholar
Hofmann, I. 1984 In Proceedings of the 1984 INS-International Symposium on Heavy Ion Accelerators and Their Application to Inertial Fusion, p. 238.Google Scholar
Kapichinskij, I.M. & Vladimirskij, V.V. 1959 In Proceedings of the 1959 International Conference on High Energy Accelerators, (CERN), p. 274.Google Scholar
Lyon, L. et al. 1988 J. Phys. B. Atom. Mol. Phys. 196, 4737.Google Scholar
Maschke, A.W. 1976 unpublished.Google Scholar
McCrory, R.L. & Verdon, C.P. 1989 In Inertial Confinement Fusion, Caruso, A. and Sindoni, E., eds. (Compositori-SIF, Bologna), p. 183.Google Scholar
Mohl, D. 1991 Transverse space-charge effects in heavy ion storage ring(s) for inertial confinement fusion, preliminary draft (CERN, Geneva).Google Scholar
Murakami, M. & Meyer-Ter-Vehn, J. 1991a Nucl. Fusion (press).Google Scholar
Murakami, M. & Meyer-Ter-Vehn, J. 1991b Max-Planck-Institute für QuantenOptik preprint.Google Scholar
Murakami, M. & Nishihara, K. 1986 Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 25, 242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murakami, M. et al. 1990 J. X-Ray Sci. Tech. 2, 127.Google Scholar
Ramis, R. et al. 1988 Comp. Phys. Comm. 49, 475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reiser, M. 1978 Particle Accel. 8, 167.Google Scholar
Rubbia, C. 1989 Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. A278 253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar