Multilevel System for Protecting the Cryogenic Target during Its Delivery to the Focus of High-Power Laser Facility at High Repetition Rate

Abstract

An urgent issue in research of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is the development of the scientific, engineering, and technological base to settle the problem of quality protection of the fuel layer during the high repetition rate delivery of a cryogenic fuel target (CFT) to the focus of a high-power laser facility or ICF reactor. A concept of the multilevel system of CFT protection developed at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is discussed. The concept includes possible ways of integration of the latest developments in the area of formation of the stable ultrafine fuel structure and also the application of external methods of CFT protection such as the (cryogenic and/or metallic) CFT external coatings, the profiling of a target nest inside the sabot (CFT carrier), and the noncontact CFT delivery using a hybrid accelerator based on the effect of quantum levitation of high-temperature superconductors in a magnetic field. The results obtained during the theoretical and experimental simulation made it possible to transfer from the stage of conceptualization to the stage of engineering implementation of the problem.