Shock ignition of thermonuclear fuel with high areal densities

In thick shell implosions, most of the kinetic energy is used to assemble the cold fuel rather than to heat the hot spot. A significant increase in the hot-spot compression and reduction of the driver energy required for ignition can be accomplished by launching a shock during the final stage of the implosion. In direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the 'ignitor' shock can be launched by a power spike at the end of the laser pulse. For targets with the same adiabat and implosion velocities, the laser energy required for ignition is significantly lower for shock-ignition ICF than for standard ICF