D-Cluster Converter Foil for Laser-Accelerated Deuteron Beams: Towards Deuteron-Beam-Driven Fast Ignition

A volumetrically-loaded ultra-high-density deuterium cluster material is described here for use as a deuteron beam source in laser matter interactions. Due to high volumetric loading, the material has potential to provide enough deuteron beam flux for the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) fuel ignition, avoiding depletion problem encountered by current proton-driven fast ignition (FI). In addition, accelerated deuterons can fuse with the ICF fuel (both D and T) to provide extra “bonus” energy gain, which further relaxes the laser-driver energy needed. Preliminary TRIDENT sub-Petawatt Laser experiments have provided some encouraging results showing that our cluster foils with a relative low packing fraction, can achieve a high yield of the accelerated deuterons even in the presence of an unwanted surface contaminant.