[Sakata et al. "Magnetized fast isochoric laser heating for efficient creation of ultra-high-energy-density states." Nature communications (2018)]

In this work, researchers showed that one can make fusion heating much more efficient by using magnets to guide the energy. Normally, when an ultra-powerful laser strikes a target, it creates a spray of super-fast electrons, but most of them scatter and miss the dense fuel core that needs heating. By applying a strong magnetic field -hundreds of times stronger than anything in a hospital MRI - the team was able to steer these electrons straight into the compressed material, raising the fraction of laser energy that actually heats the fuel to nearly 8%. Their experiments and simulations suggest that, if scaled up, this “magnetized fast heating” approach could push efficiencies even higher, making it a promising path toward creating and studying ultra-high-energy-density matter, and bringing fusion ignition a step closer to reality.