A new shock wave and its application to inertial confinement fusion

Recent numerical simulations hae revealed the existence of a very narrow magnetic rarefaction shock wave. The thickness of this shock is on the order of c/ω /sub pe/ . The simulations indicate that this structure is very general and occurs whenever surfaces are strongly heated (as in most inertial confinement fusion schemes). This rarefaction shock is important to ICF because: the structure can be created on the surface of an ion diode to accelerate driver ions, the magnetic fields of the structure can be used to implode pellets directly, and the structure enhances decoupling and fast ion energy loss in traditional targets. The authors present results of the first detailed calculations on the conditions for the existence of the shock. The structure, the shock, and its effect on the acceleration of ions are also discussed