Fuel gain exceeding unity in an inertially confined fusion implosion
Fuel gain exceeding unity in an inertially confined fusion implosion
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DOI：
10.1038/nature13008
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发表时间：
2014-02-20
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Tommasini, R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hurricane, O. A.;Callahan, D. A.;Tommasini, R.
点火是需要使聚变能成为可行的替代能源，但尚未实现（1）。点火过程中的关键步骤是使在惯性约束聚变等离子体中通过聚变反应产生的能量超过在内爆过程中沉积到氘-氚聚变燃料和热点中的能量，从而导致燃料增益大于1。在这里，我们报告的成就，聚变燃料增益超过统一的美国国家点火设施使用的“高脚”内爆方法（2，3），这是一种操纵的激光脉冲形状的方式，减少不稳定性的内爆。这些实验表明，在过去的氘氚内爆实验的产量性能的数量级的改善。我们还看到α粒子自加热对产额的显着贡献，以及加速氘-氚聚变燃烧最终“逃逸”并点燃所需的“自举”证据。
Ignition is needed to make fusion energy a viable alternative energy source, but has yet to be achieved(1). A key step on the way to ignition is to have the energy generated through fusion reactions in an inertially confined fusion plasma exceed the amount of energy deposited into the deuterium-tritium fusion fuel and hotspot during the implosion process, resulting in a fuel gain greater than unity. Here we report the achievement of fusion fuel gains exceeding unity on the US National Ignition Facility using a 'high-foot' implosion method(2,3), which is a manipulation of the laser pulse shape in a way that reduces instability in the implosion. These experiments show an order-of-magnitude improvement in yield performance over past deuterium-tritium implosion experiments. We also see a significant contribution to the yield from alpha-particle self-heating and evidence for the 'bootstrapping' required to accelerate the deuterium-tritium fusion burn to eventually 'run away' and ignite.