Abstract
Shock ignition (SI) scheme of inertial confinement fusion targets is considered as a promising scheme to
reduce the required drive laser energy for ignition. On the SI scheme, a spherical shell target is compressed
by relatively low intensity laser pulse irradiation, and hot spot is ignited by converging shock
waves by high intensity laser pulse called “spike pulse”. The strong shock by the spike pulse should be
over 300 Mbar (=30 TPa). The key physics to produce such ultrahigh pressure is the contribution of hot
electrons generated by parametric instabilities. The hot electron generation, transport, and their effects
on shock wave parameters in various experimental conditions were experimentally explored. This review
focuses on recent experimental study on the effect of ultrahigh pressure generation produced by hot
electrons.
