Ignition target design for the National Ignition Facility

The goal of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is to produce significant thermonuclear burn from a target driven with a laser or ion beam. To achieve that goal, the national ICF Program has proposed a laser capable of producing ignition and intermediate gain. The facility is called the National Ignition Facility (NIF). This article describes ignition targets designed for the NIF and their modeling. Although the baseline NIF target design, described herein, is indirect drive, the facility will also be capable of doing direct-drive ignition targets - currently being developed at the University of Rochester.