HIDIF – an approach to high repetition rate inertial fusion with heavy ions

The goal of the HIDIF study, carried out within the framework of a European Study Group, is to demonstrate the feasibility of an RF linac and storage ring based scheme for high-repetition rate ignition consistent with an indirectly driven low-gain target. Key issues are the control of space-charge effects in the driver to minimize beam loss and emittance growth up to final focusing. It is shown that the driver can provide the power to ignite a two-converter reference target at 3 MJ total energy using a focal spot radius of 1.7 mm. The problem of efficiency of the HIDIF-scheme in the coupling to X-rays is discussed.