Indirect-Drive ICF
Indirect-drive
ICF delivers the energy of a laser (or ion beam) not
directly to the fuel capsule, but rather to an enclosure, or hohlraum,
in which it is thermalized. This
thermal radiation is typically characterized by temperatures of 2 to 3
million K, so it is primarily X-rays.
Images of a gold hohlraum used at the NOVA laser at Livermore (far left). The
picture on the right was
taken in X-rays and shows the
laser hotspots on the interior of the hohlraum radiating through the hohlraum walls.