Stages of Fast Ignition

Many powerful laser beams irradiate a capsule of DT fuel. The lasers are arranged symmetrically around the capsule and heat a thin layer of the capsule causing it to expand rapidly. This forces the rest of the material in the opposite direction.

The material converges around the tip of a gold cone. The density of the DT is now hundreds of times the density of solid material.

An ultra intense laser is fired into the gold cone. When the laser interacts with the tip of the gold cone a large number of energetic electrons are produced.

The energetic electrons travel into the dense DT fuel and deposit their energy. This raises the fuel to 100 million degrees centigrade which is hot enough to initiate the fusion reactions.