Low-adiabat implosions for fast-ignition inertial confinement fusion

A method to assemble thermonuclear fuel for fast ignition with high densities, high rho R, and a small size hot spot is presented. Massive cryogenic shells can be imploded with a low implosion velocity V-I on a low adiabat alpha using the relaxation-pulse technique. While the low V-I yields a small hot spot, the low a leads to large peak values of the density and areal density. It is shown that a 750-0 laser can assemble fuel with V-I . 1.7 x 10(7) cm/s, alpha . 0.7, rho . 400g/cc, rho R . 3 g/cm(2), and hot-spot volume less than 10% of the compressed core. If ignited, this fuel assembly can produce yields up to 5 x 10(19) of interest to IFE applications.