An Alternative Scheme for Heavy Ion Driven Inertial Fusion

In order to achieve the required beam pulse length of about 5 ns necessary for ignition, present scenarios for Heavy Ion Driven Inertial Fusion (HIDIF) propose induction linacs for the final bunch com pression. This, because final compression does not appear to be possible in the rings because of the huge velocity spread of the large bunches. In order to preserve a more economic in-ring, multi-pass buncher RF system, it is proposed to split these bunches into four families of sub-bunches, which are separated by gaps in energy. The target is located in the centre of the holding ring and the resul ting scenario is far more compact and economic than the one presently discussed [1].