Towards realization of hyper-velocities for impact fast ignition

A new ignition scheme, impact fast ignition (IFI), is studied, in which the compressed DT main fuel is to be ignited by impact with another fraction of separately imploded DT fuel, which is accelerated in the hollow conical target. The first and distinct milestone in the IFI scenario is the demonstration of such a hyper-velocity, of the order of 10⁸ cm s⁻¹. Two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation results obtained in full geometry using plastic instead of DT fuel are presented, in which some key physical parameters for the impact shell dynamics, such as an implosion velocity of 10⁸ cm s⁻¹, a compressed density of 300–400 g cm⁻³ and a converted temperature greater than 5 keV, are demonstrated. A preliminary experimental result with a planar target is presented to show the highest velocity, 6 × 10⁷ cm s⁻¹, ever achieved.