Indirect-drive inertial fusion targets for two-sided heavy-ion illumination

The properties of heavy-ion induced fusion targets with two-sided illumination and with the converters placed completely inside the hohlraum have been investigated using integrated simulations based on the SATURN and MIMOZA code packages in order to check the results obtained with the view factor method in previous work, which is briefly reviewed. Separate converter simulations shaw the importance of an accurate treatment of radiation transport and also demonstrate that a converter efficiency of 40 - 80% can be achieved easily depending on the detailed converter material and geometry. For the complete target, a gas fill is shown to be necessary and it turned out to be very important to allow some of the radiation shields to become partially transparent during the evolution. In the most favorable case, an asymmetry in the temperature on the capsule of about 5% was achieved, leading to a reduction of the neutron yield by a factor of 7 compared to an ideally symmetric situation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.