Study of Nonlocal Electron Stopping Range in Deuterium–Tritium for Laser Direct-Drive Inertial Confinement Fusion

Accurate models of nonlocal electron transport are crucial for understanding laser–target coupling for laser direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The electron stopping range is a key physics quantity used in nonlocal transport models because it describes the path length traveled by electrons before reaching thermal equilibrium with the background plasma. The current model used by radiation-hydrodynamic codes is a modified version of the Lee–More model.[1] To improve the stopping-range calculation, we use the first-principles, time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) method to calculate the electron stopping power [2] in CH [3] and deuterium–tritium (DT) for ICF-relevant conditions. Using the stopping-power calculations, we can develop a universal model for the nonlocal electron stopping range in dense DT plasmas. We further compare our TD-DFT-based calculations to analytical models and discuss the implications of these calculations in terms of hydrodynamic simulations.

[1] V. N. Goncharov et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 012702 (2006).

[2] A. J. White and L. A. Collins, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 055002 (2020).

[3] K. A. Nichols et al., Phys. Rev. E. 108, 035206 (2023).