At the Institute, research is being carried out on inertial confinement fusion using lasers, as well as on fusion with strong magnetic fields in collaboration with scientists from leading European universities. Systematic research is conducted on the dynamic evolution of strong laser pulses interacting with solid targets, studying all stages from the initial solid state to the plasma state. This research is critical for international fusion energy efforts, where plasma instabilities limit energy efficiency. IPPL participates in the HiPER+ and Eurofusion research networks for this purpose.

Research Areas

a) Study of the early time dynamics of ablators using lasers

Study of the early time dynamics of ablators and preheating studies with CW lasers. Investigation of the “imprint” mechanisms and seeding instability dynamics. Scaled dynamics of ablator. Materials like Au, Al, Si, CH, W, C and multilayer targets under extreme loading conditions.

b) Plasma facing component (PFC) damage induced by runaway electron incidence

Modelling of the RE-induced C and W damage experiments in WEST and AUG tokamaks (i) LS-DYNA modelling of the PFC thermomechanical response (in collaboration with KTH, Stockholm). (ii) Understanding of the PFC explosion mechanism (in collaboration with KTH, Stockholm).