With the world’s first time ever igni­tion of a bur­ning plasma through iner­tial con­fi­ne­ment of a dense plasma, fusion energy has gar­ne­red glo­bal atten­tion. Plasma con­fi­ne­ment and igni­tion were dri­ven by the world’s lar­gest and most ener­ge­tic laser in this expe­ri­ment: the Natio­nal Igni­tion Faci­lity in the United Sta­tes.

Ger­many, reco­gni­zed for its lea­der­ship in basic rese­arch on magne­tic fusion plas­mas, has not been par­ti­cu­larly active in ICF fusion rese­arch over the past two deca­des. Howe­ver, the Ger­man pho­to­nics and engi­nee­ring sec­tors have played a signi­fi­cant role in pro­vi­ding key com­pon­ents for high energy lasers, and pro­vi­ded mate­ri­als, tar­gets, pre­cis­ion instru­men­ta­tion, elec­tro­nics, and opti­cal tech­no­lo­gies to lea­ding fusion expe­ri­ments world­wide. Addi­tio­nally, Ger­man rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons main­tain a high level of exper­tise in essen­tial tech­no­lo­gies for laser fusion, as well as in shared tech­no­lo­gies bet­ween magne­tic fusion energy (MFE) and iner­tial fusion energy (IFE), such as rese­arch in fuel cycle or reac­tor mate­ri­als.

Ger­many is stra­te­gi­cally prio­ri­tiz­ing the long-term adop­tion of fusion tech­no­logy, given the robust foun­da­tion of this tech­no­logy. This initia­tive is posi­tio­ned along­side other rene­wa­ble energy sources like solar and wind. The focus on fusion tech­no­logy high­lights the neces­sity for con­ti­nuous rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment in these cri­ti­cal tech­no­lo­gi­cal areas to main­tain and advance Germany’s lea­der­ship in high-tech tech­no­lo­gies and the energy sec­tor.

This pre­sen­ta­tion will pro­vide an intro­duc­tion to Laser Iner­tial Fusion Energy, offer insights into cur­rent rese­arch from an inter­na­tio­nal and spe­ci­fi­cally Ger­man view­point, and iden­tify oppor­tu­ni­ties within the laser and optics indus­try.