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Performance enhancement of direct-drive shock-augmented ignition inertial fusion implosions through shock timing optimization

M. Khan1,2,*, K. Churnetski3, D. E. M. Barlow4,5, R. Betti3, C. Freeman1,2, K. Glize1, J. Kunimune6, A. Lees3, R. Mancini7 et al.

A. Nutter1,2, R. W. Paddock1, S. Regan3, C. Stoeckl3, W. Theobald3,8, N. Woolsey2, and R. H. H. Scott1

  • *Contact author: matthew.khan@stfc.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. E 113, 065210 – Published 16 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zl4y-4blx

Abstract

Shock-augmented ignition (SAI) [R. H. H. Scott et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 195001 (2022)] is an alternative inertial confinement fusion concept that is designed to achieve high energy gain by combining improved resilience to instabilities with enhanced fuel compression. In SAI, lower implosion velocities can improve hydrodynamic stability and limited laser intensities reduce the excitation of detrimental laser-plasma instabilities, enabling greater areal density accumulation. Here we report an experimental investigation of SAI using a series of warm D2 implosions. By timing the augmenting shock to arrive at the implosion center immediately prior to peak compression, the areal density and hot-spot pressure increase by 50% and 112%, respectively, relative to unoptimized designs. Ignition-scale simulations reproduce the observed timing dependence and demonstrate the potential of SAI for inertial fusion energy.

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Phys. Rev. E 113, 065210– Published 16 June, 2026
  • Received 19 June 2025
  • Revised 16 February 2026
  • Accepted 15 May 2026
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