Optimization and evaluation of coil gun as a target injector for laser fusion

Target injector is an essential device to be established for a laser-fusion reactor. This paper describes current status of the injector research and introduces our research results of a coil gun. The drive circuits and trigger timing of the coil gun were optimized to improve injected projectile speed. The maximum speed at the first stage achieved to 8.7 m/s after optimization. The laser shot demonstration was carried out by the coil gun with an optically triggered Nd:YAG laser. The design guideline for a coil gun is discussed with experimental results and numerical simulation. (author)