The Diode-Pumped Neodymium Laser-Driven Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor

Abstract

The recirculating power fraction of a laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) reactor can be reduced substantially by using a diode-pumped neodymium solid-state laser instead of the conventional flashlamp pumping. Although laser diodes are currently rather expensive, their price will drop in the future, and the laser efficiency in an ICF reactor may increase by an order of magnitude, that being the condition for a tolerable circulating power fraction. In addition to that application in energy technology, the availability of an efficient diode-pumped neodymium laser may also trigger scientific research in other nonnuclear areas such as coherent radar, global sensing from satellites, medicine, space communication and technology, micromachining, photochemistry, environmental sciences, and spectroscopy and particle accelerator applications.