This paper reviews our current understanding of the relative advantages of direct drive (DD) and indirect drive (ID) for a 1 GWe inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant driven by a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL). This comparison is motivated by a recent study (1) that shows that the projected cost of electricity (COE) for DD is actually about the same as that for ID even though the target gain for DD can be much larger. We can therefore no longer assume that DD is the ultimate targeting scenario for IFE, and must begin a more rigorous comparison of these two drive options. The comparison begun here shows that ID may actually end up being preferred, but the uncertainties are still rather large.

The bunch train cavity interaction is an accelerator physics problem, for which a system-theoretic model is lacking. Modal analysis has been used to characterize the system dynamics, exploiting the system's symmetry. Correspondingly, control design has been done using classical frequency-domain-based control. Several shortcomings of these methods are highlighted, all of which are remedied by a new time-domain, system-theoretic model presented herein. The new formulation is a periodic, discrete-time system, amenable to state-space control-design methods.

This paper reviews our current understanding of the relative advantages of direct drive (DD) and indirect drive (ID) for a 1 GWe inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant driven by a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL). This comparison is motivated by a recent study (1) that shows that the projected cost of electricity (COE) for DD is actually about the same as that for ID even though the target gain for DD can be much larger. We can therefore no longer assume that DD is the ultimate targeting scenario for IFE, and must begin a more rigorous comparison of these two drive options. The comparison begun here shows that ID may actually end up being preferred, but the uncertainties are still rather large.

Preliminary experiments using a long pulse laser generated X-ray source to back-light a short pulse laser heated thin foil have been performed at the Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI) at Ecole Polytechnique in France. In this experiment, a 2 J, 300 ps, 532 nm laser was used to create the X-ray back-lighter. The primary diagnostic was a von Hamos spectrograph coupled to a 500 fs X-ray streak camera (TREX-VHS) developed at LLNL. This diagnostic combines high collection efficiency ({approx} 10{sup -4} steradians) with fast temporal response ({approx} 500 fs), allowing resolution of extremely transient spectral variations. The TREX-VHS was used to determine the time history, intensity, and spectral content of the back-lighter. The second diagnostic, Fourier Domain Interferometry (FDI), provides information about the position of the critical density of the target and thus the expansion hydrodynamics, laying the ground work for the plasma characterization. The plasmas were determined to be moderately to strongly coupled, resulting in absorption measurements that provide insight into bound states under such conditions.

Coarsening of solder microstructures dramatically affects fatigue lifetimes. This paper presents a study of microstructural evolution due to thermal cycling and aging of small solder joints.