The 9th International Conference on Matter and Radiation at Extremes (ICMRE2026) ( ICMRE2026)

Alpha-particle transport and energy deposition play a crucial role in sustaining hotspot burn in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). However, most mature theories of alpha-particle energy diffusion are based on isotropic assumptions and are therefore inadequate for describing anisotropic alpha-particle transport in magnetized ICF plasma. In this study, an anisotropic alpha-particle diffusion model is formulated within the framework of Braginskii theory and implemented in the radiation-hydrodynamics code FLASH. The model is calibrated using magnetized implosion experiments performed on OMEGA, and is subsequently examined in one-dimensional planar-target and two-dimensional hotspot test problems. The results demonstrate that in weak magnetic fields the model yields results close to the isotropic simulation, whereas in stronger fields the magnetic field significantly inhibits cross-field alpha-particle transport, leading to appreciable changes in hotspot energy deposition, burn propagation, deformation, and fusion yield. Overall, the proposed model is shown to be capable of capturing key features of implosion dynamics under magnetized conditions.

laser ICF,alpha-particle transport,anisotropic diffusion,magnetized ICF