Natural Cone Formation for Fast Ignition of Laser Fusion

We propose to utilize the leading pulse of a petawatt class laser to create a conic plasma channel in the dense plasmas. This plasma channel could serve as a natural cone to guide the main pulse to the cone tip, as behaves similarly to the physical Au cone. We estimate that the leading pulse of a petawatt
laser could create a natural cone with cone tip only about 100μm away from the edge of compressed core plasma. The natural cone formation should be compatible for a good uniform compression and efficient fast heating of the imploded fuel.