2D simulation of acceleration and compression of plasma foils inside cylindrical and conical microducts

The externally guided target (EGT) concept for ICF is now being discussed as an alternative to spherical pellets. It consists of two DT foils accelerated by opposite laser or ion beams and guided by a solid microduct. The foils move one towards the other reaching velocities of 10⁸ cm/s; as they collide in the centre of the biconical section of the tube, high pressures and temperatures are generated inside the DT plasma. In order to reach fusion conditions, instabilities in the contact surface between the DT and the coating as well as nonuniformities in the collision must be minimized to avoid material mixing. It will be shown that this technique is much more insensitive to in-flight non-uniformities than the spherical implosion In the following pages several simulations with laser driven EGT will be presented, analysing the main features of this concept and its feasibility