Proton-beam driven fast ignition of inertially confined fuels: Reduction of the ignition energy by the use of two proton beams with radially shaped profiles

Fast ignition of a spherical compressed deuterium-tritium assembly induced by the energy deposition of laser-accelerated proton beams is considered. An efficient way to reduce the ignition energy consists of using a two proton beams scheme [M. Temporal, Phys Plasmas 13, 122704 (2006)]. For a uniformly compressed fuel at 500 g/cm(3) irradiated by proton beams with Maxwellian energy distribution with a temperature of 4 MeV, the ignition energy is 10 kJ using only one proton beam and reduces to a total of 8 kJ with the two-beam scheme. Further reduction of the ignition energy is found by using a first beam with annular radial profile and a second beam with the uniform radial profile. It is found that the first beam causes some additional fuel compression and confinement that decrease the total beam energy required for the ignition to 6 kJ, which is 40% smaller than in the case of a single beam with uniform radial profile. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.