A domed-rugby hohlraum design with high radiation and implosion performance

Abstract Obtaining inertial fusion energy requires higher gain in laser indirect drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), but traditional cylindrical hohlraums face two persistent challenges: low energy coupling efficiency from the hohlraum to the capsule and severe inner beam interception by outer gold bubbles, both needing optimization for improved ICF performance. In this paper, a new domed-rugby hohlraum design is proposed. The novel and optimized hohlraum configuration increases the energy coupling efficiency by reducing the wall surface and energy loss with a rugby-shaped geometry, thereby enhancing the radiation source temperature. Simultaneously, through a special toroidal dome structure, the interaction between the outer bubble plasma and inner laser beams is mitigated, allowing the inner laser beams to reach the waist of the hohlraum. As a result, more spherical implosions are obtained and the quality of the radiation source is improved. It has been simulated that on the 100 kJ class laser facility, there is a 20% higher neutron yield. The integrated implosion performance is expected to be significantly advanced in such a novel configuration, providing a new concept for hohlraum configuration designs with a high-temperature and high-quality radiation source.