ABSTRACT
The first point to realize about targets is that there is no single optimal design for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research. In fact there are several distinct target designs, each tailored for a different purpose:
• to bring experimental insight into some physical aspects, • to achieve fusion — like the ones for the National Ignition Facility
(NIF) or Laser Megajoule (LMJ), • targets for a future fusion reactor. Targets for physics experiments tend to have a completely different design — they might even not be spherical but planar. They are designed to emphasize particular physical characteristics or assist in experimental diagnostics. For example, slab targets are often used to study the interaction of beams with matter in detail: absorption, hot electron generation, transport, hydrodynamic instabilities, and so on. In this chapter we will concentrate on targets designed to achieve fusion and refer to Section 9.4 for a description of the expected alterations necessary for fusion reactor targets. Targets for physics experiments can differ so much from fusion targets, that we will exclude them from the discussion here.
