On the use of KrF lasers for fast ignition

The KrF laser has been considered as an inertial fusion driver alternative to diode-pumped lasers. The possibilities of KrF lasers for fast ignition is supported by their short wavelength and the corresponding larger penetration depth together with the possible use of the same amplifiers for fusion driver and fast ignitor. It is shown that in the case of a fusion test facility both the energy and the intensity requirements can be fulfilled. A fast ignitor using 20 ps KrF pulses requires beam smoothing techniques after angular multiplexing due to the coherence of the beam. A multiple beam fast ignitor is suggested as an alternative in which a high number of beams of 1 ps duration are separately focused on the fuel after polarization demultiplexing. This arrangement allows even the pulse-forming of the ignitor.

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