Argon Fluoride Laser-Driven Inertial Fusion Energy System

A laser fusion power generating facility, including:

• (a) an argon fluoride (ArF) laser, the ArF laser comprising:
• (i) at least one discharge-pumped pulsed laser source emitting spatially incoherent broadband argon fluoride (ArF) laser light centered at 193 nm, the ArF laser light being in the form of an initial laser pulse having an initial diameter;
• (ii) at least one spatial, temporal, and spectral optical pulse shaping element that receives the ArF laser light from the laser source;
• (iii) a first set of beam splitting and steering elements that receive the ArF laser light from the laser sources and convert the ArF laser light into a plurality of temporally and angularly coded sequences of ArF laser pulses;
• (iv) a plurality of discharge-pumped amplifiers that receive the temporally and angularly coded sequences of ArF laser pulses from the beam splitting and steering elements and increase the power of the received ArF laser pulses to form a first sequence of amplified ArF laser pulses;
• (v) a plurality of electron-beam pumped amplifiers that receive the first sequence of amplified ArF laser pulses and further increase the power of the received ArF laser pulses to form a second sequence of amplified ArF laser pulses;
• and
• (vi) a sequence of de-multiplexing optical elements that bring the second sequence of amplified ArF laser pulses into temporal synchronism and spatial superposition at the surface of a fusion target containing deuterium and tritium;
• (b) a production facility configured to produce deuterium/tritium fusion targets;
• (c) a reaction chamber that is essentially evacuated wherein the laser-target interaction occurs;
• (d) a lithium-containing blanket around the reaction chamber to breed tritium fuel for target fabrication;
• (e) a coolant system to transport heat away from the reaction chamber;
• and
• (f) a turbine system to generate electricity.

A method for generating power, comprising:

• firing a plurality of ArF laser pulses towards a centrally situated spherical target capsule having an outer ablator shell surrounding an inner shell comprising a fusion fuel, each laser pulse having a central wavelength of 193 nm and having a predetermined pulse profile and pulse duration, the laser pulses being further configured to have laser energies of 0.3 to 2 MJ with peak intensities on the target of 1015 to 1016 W/cm2;
• wherein the lasers are arranged radially around the target capsule and being configured to provide uniform spherical illumination of the target;
• and
• wherein energy from the laser pulses is transferred to the target and generating sufficient pressure on the target to accelerate the inner shell of the target capsule to hundreds of km/sec so as to form a spherical assembly of compressed fuel surrounding a hot spot within the fusion fuel, the hot spot having sufficient temperature, density and size to ignite and initiate a thermonuclear burn which then propagates out into the compressed fuel to achieve high fusion burn yield.