Direct-drive laser target designs for sub-megajoule energies

New direct-drive laser target designs with KrF laser light take advantage of the shorter wavelength to lower the laser energy required for substantial gain (>30x) to sub-MJ level. These low laser-energy pellets are useful in systems that could form an intermediate step towards fusion energy, such as the proposed Fusion Test Facility [S. P. Obenschain et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 056320 (2006)]. The short wavelength laser should allow higher intensity (and higher pressure) without increasing the risk of laser-plasma instabilities. The higher pressure in turn allows higher velocities to be achieved while keeping the low aspect ratios required for hydrodynamic stability. The canonical laser energy has been chosen to be 500 kJ. A target design is presented with various laser pulse shapes and both 1D and 2D simulation results are shown. The sensitivity of these targets to both low-mode and high-mode perturbations is examined. The analysis and simulations in this paper indicate that significant gain (G=57) can be achieved for these targets even in the presence of hydrodynamic instabilities. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.