Journal
NATURE PHYSICS
Volume 12, Issue 8, Pages 800-806Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS3720
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Funding
- US Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [DE-AC52-07NA27344]
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Alpha-particle self-heating, the process of deuterium-tritium fusion reaction products depositing their kinetic energy locally within a fusion reaction region and thus increasing the temperature in the reacting region, is essential for achieving ignition in a fusion system. Here, we report new inertial confinement fusion experiments where the alpha-particle heating of the plasma is dominant with the fusion yield produced exceeding the fusion yield from the work done on the fuel (pressure times volume change) by a factor of two or more. These experiments have achieved the highest yield (26 +/- 0.5 kJ) and stagnation pressures (approximate to 220 +/- 40 Gbar) of any facility-based inertial confinement fusion experiments, although they are still short of the pressures required for ignition on the National Ignition Facility (similar to 300-400 Gbar). These experiments put us in a new part of parameter space that has not been extensively studied so far because it lies between the no-alpha-particle-deposition regime and ignition.
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