Recent advances and challenges for diode-pumped solid-state lasers as an inertial fusion energy driver candidate

We discuss how solid-state laser technology can serve in the interests of fusion energy beyond the goals of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is now being constructed to ignite a deuterium-tritium target to fusion conditions in the laboratory for the first time. We think that advanced solid-state laser technology can offer the repetition-rate and efficiency needed to drive a fusion power plant, in contrast to the single-shot character of NIF. As discussed below, we propose that a gas-cooled, diode-pumped Yb:S-FAP laser can provide new paradigm for fusion laser technology leading into the next century.