NUMERICAL AND THEORETICAL-STUDIES ON THE IGNITION OF ICF PLASMAS DRIVEN BY ION-BEAMS

Deuterium-tritium plasmas inertially confined can undergo fusion ignit ion if some requirements are met. The final temperature of the plasma at the end of the implosion process has to be large enough to produce the overheating of the plasma by the energy deposition of the fusion p roducts. Fusion reactivity begins to be relevant over 1 keV (10(-20) c m(3)/s) but radiation losses must be taken into account as a cooling m echanism. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations point out tha t the losses can be minimized if the plasma is optically thick (before the fusion burst) and ignition can be triggered, at moderate temperat ures. Stagnation-free targets produced by optimized pusherless implosi ons can reach high-energy gains if some criteria established in this p aper are met.