Isochoric implosions for fast ignition

Fast Ignition (FI) exploits the ignition of a dense, uniform fuel assembly by an external energy source to achieve high gain. In conventional ICF implosions, however, the fuel assembles as a dense shell surrounding a low density, high-pressure hotspot. Such configurations are far from optimal for FI. Here, it is shown that a self-similar spherical implosion of the type originally studied by Guderley [Luftfahrtforschung 19, 302 (1942).] may be employed to implode a dense, quasi-uniform fuel assembly with minimal energy wastage in forming a hotspot. A scheme for realizing these specialized implosions in a practical ICF target is also described