Description
Inertial Fusion, proved by the NIF's milestone achievement of ignition and gain of ~4, is a scientifically mature concept for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE). However, the NIF's indirect-drive method faces challenges in scaling to a commercially required gain of ~100. Laser-Direct Drive (LDD) is a compelling alternative, offering high efficiency gain by coupling ~5× more laser energy directly to the target. This path needs solutions for mitigating Laser-Plasma (LPI) and hydrodynamic instabilities and will need to implement design constraints from target manufacturability and target survival during the injection process. This talk details Focused Energy's program to develop a self-consistent LDD implosion target for an IFE Pilot Plant. Such a target needs to satisfy critical constraints across implosion physics, target fabrication, laser and reactor design. Achieving high confidence in ignition and high gain relies on developing a target manufacturing method that ensures high quality and scales to mass production and additionally on optimizing the laser system for high wall-plug efficiency and robust LPI/hydrodynamic mitigation. Key laser requirements are the implementation of broad spectral bandwidth and temporal beam smoothing. Paired with careful target design choices, these laser system improvements promise to suppress LPI and laser imprint. We will show the concept for our multi-color broadband laser and its implementation within our coming experimental laser facility, designed for LPI and hydrodynamic mitigation studies. Besides, we will present results from LPI experiments using spectrally broadband lasers at PHELIX and FLUX, which are vital to demonstrate the technological feasibility of this LDD mitigation strategy.