Electron temperature requirements for neutralized inertial confinement fusion light ion beams

Because of their large self-space-charge fields, light ion beam drivers of energy and power sufficient to achieve inertial confinement fusion (ICF) cannot be focused on a small fuel pellet unless neutralized. Even if initially neutralized with comoving electrons, these beams will not stay neutralized and focus during propagation through a vacuum chamber unless the initial thermal energy of the neutralizing electrons is sufficiently small. In this paper we discuss the effects which contribute to the effective initial temperature of the neutralizing electrons, including compressional shock heating. We also employ a simple heuristic model to construct envelope equations which govern axial as well as radial beam compression and use them to predict the largest initial electron temperature consistent with the required beam compression.