Inertial Confinement Fusion

A PhD project for October 2025
Direct Drive ICF modelling including CBET and LPI frameworks
Supervised by Prof. J. Chittenden (Imperial College)
Funding - confirmed Home Fee Status
Mostly computational with some elements of theory and experiment

Direct Drive (DD) inertial fusion energy (IFE) schemes directly illuminate a fusion fuel pellet with laser light. They present a compelling approach to energy generation given their relative simplicity and increased efficiency compared to the indirect drive approach typically used on the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
An approach to further increasing the implosion efficiency in DD approaches is to separate the compression of the fusion fuel from the heating phase. Shock ignition is one such concept and uses a strong converging shock driven by a laser as the fuel is being compressed, to provide the fusion spark.
In large-scale DD laser experiments, laser plasma instability (LPI) mechanisms can influence the coupling of laser energy to the imploding capsule. One effect arising from LPIs is cross beam energy transfer (CBET). In NIF experiments the CBET mechanism can be controlled and used to improve the symmetry of energy coupling to the capsule.
In general LPI mechanisms are highly non-linear and difficult to model but if their behaviour can be predicted this provides a route to controlling their effects and therefore improving the efficiency of DD implosions.
This PhD will study the shock ignition and other novel direct drive Inertial Confinement Fusion designs using the CHIMERA radiation hydrodynamics code, utilising the framework developed to simulate CBET to enable to more general LPI modelling. The project will be based within the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College.

Supervisor:    Prof Jeremy Chittenden

Type:                Mostly computational with elements of theoretical and experimental

Funding:          Funding confirmed - requires Home Fee Status

The demonstration of ignition in indirect drive inertial confinement fusion experiments has provided the first laboratory platform to study the physics of thermonuclear burning plasma. This PhD project will use numerical simulations of experiments on the National Ignition Facility to provide in depth understanding of the physical processes at work which lead to ignition of the fuel, the subsequent burn process and how this leads to high energy yields. This will include an assessment of different diagnostic signatures of ignition and burn, options for improved target designs leading to higher energy yields on NIF and scaling considerations to understand the opportunities for higher yields at larger laser driver energies and powers. The project will be based in the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies and will make use of the CHIMERA radiation-hydrodynamics code developed at Imperial College, to undertake 3D modelling of burning plasmas in Inertial Confinement Fusion as well as extensive models for synthetic neutron and gamma ray diagnostics.

PhD project for October 2025

Supervisor:            Prof. Simon Bland

Type:                        Experimental

Funding:                  Fully funded for UK students

Warm dense plasmas are extremely difficult to model, combining the properties of plasmas with coupling between particles (atoms, electrons, ions) more commonly associated with solids and liquids. One method to produce these plasmas is through the ablation of targets by intense bursts of X-ray radiation.
This PhD builds on previous efforts on the MAGPIE facility to explore the effects of X-ray bursts on solar panels; studying how X-ray energies and intensities will affect the heating and ablation of targets on the nanosecond scale. We will use an array of diagnostics including interferometry, Thomson scattering, X-ray radiography and spectrometry to produce quantitative measurements of the ablating plasmas from different target materials and compare them to cutting edge simulations. This will enable us to better understand the ablation process and optimize it for different purposes such as creating flows of dense plasmas for laboratory astrophysics experiments..