In this paper, the basic framework of PIMC method is firstly described in detail. In particular, four techniques developed for PIMC simulations to deal with the Fermi sign problem are reviewed. EOS data of various WDM systems obtained with PIMC simulations are then summarized, with which the advantages and disadvantages of PIMC method are illustrated. Finally, some future prospects of PIMC method are discussed.

The direct drive laser is the key factor in hybrid drive inertial confinement fusion. Its drive asymmetry has a great influence on the ignition performance of nuclear fusion. Using the same laser power, the impacts of the direct drive laser focal spot size on the ignition performance of a hybrid drive model are studied. It is shown that the size of the laser focal spot is a key parameter to influence the ignition performance of the hybrid drive model. When the size of the laser focal spot is 1 500 μm, the neutron yield of the target is close to the one got by the one dimensional implosion. When the 1 400 μm laser focal spot is used, the neutron yield is 40% of the one got by the one dimensional implosion. However, it is failed to ignite for the 1 200 μm laser focal spot. The high drive asymmetry caused by the small laser focal spot can increase the adiabat in the fuel. The fuel compressibility will decrease when the adiabat is increased, which goes against creating the ignition condition. In this way, the ignition wave is weak. Meanwhile, the high drive asymmetry can lead a high perturbation of the fuel areal density. The perturbation growth of the fuel areal density can make the shell asymmetry grow greatly when the ignition wave is formed. Under the conditions of the weak ignition wave and the high fuel areal density perturbation, the fuel spike with a high density is hard to be ignited. Therefore, the positive feedback between the increase of hotspot temperature and the ignition is restrained. Meanwhile, the fuel spike can decrease the hotspot temperature. The fuel bubble can lead the hotspot expand rapidly. All these factors will make the ignition performance decrease when a small laser focal spot is used.

We report new progress in hybrid-drive (HD) ignition target design with a high-adiabat (>3.0) and high-velocity (>400 km·s^-1). First, two-shock indirect-drive (ID) radiation temperature with lower peak 200 eV ablates and pre-compresses the capsule. Later, direct-drive lasers of power 340 TW in flat-top pulse are absorbed near critical surface, combined with the radiation to drive the implosions. The "snowplow" effect in the HD heaps low ID corona density into a high HD plasma density at the radiation ablation front where maximal HD pressure reaches over 500 Mbar. Such high pressure further drives capsule imploding with peak velocity about 424.5 km·s^-1 and fuel aidabat about 3.4, and the high-velocity and high-adiabat lower the hotspot pressure required to ignition lower to about 200 Gbar at a low convergent ratio 23 to suppress hydrodynamic instabilities. 2D simulation also predicts the growth factor (GF) at hotspot is very small < 10, beneficial for a robust hotspot and further burn.

The stimulated Brillouin scattering for a bundle beam, which consists of several laser beams, is studied by using the three-dimensional large scale laser plasma interaction code (LAP3D). Several collective scattering, including the ray-retracing, shared ion acoustic wave, shared scattering light, are observed. These phenomena are explained in different parameters.

The influence of plasma effect on the shock wave and hydrodynamic instabilities is a widely concerned problem in the current research of laser fusion. However, due to the limitations of the numerical simulation methods, there is still a lack of research tools on this issue. In this work, a hybrid fluid PIC(particle-in-cell) simulation method is established tentatively. Electrons are described by a massless fluid, and multi-component ions are described by PIC method; The fluid motion is obtained by solving the equations of electro-magnetohydrodynamic, and the electromagnetic fields are obtained by solving Ohm's law and Faraday's law. Aiming at the plasma condition of laser fusion, we use hybrid fluid-PIC simulation to study the shock wave structure and its characteristics in high energy density conditions, and the influence of plasma effect on the evolution of hydrodynamic instabilities. Hybrid fluid-PIC physical modeling provides a new research method for studying the effect of plasma effect on shock wave and hydrodynamic instabilities under high energy density.

Finding ways to suppress stimulated Raman scattering(SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) is an important subject in inertial confinement fusion(ICF). Under the typical laser fusion plasma conditions, the effects of transverse magnetic field and laser bandwidth on the suppression of SRS and SBS are studied by utilizing the particle-in-cell(PIC) program. It is found that the transverse magnetic field can significantly inhibit the autoresonance of SRS in the non-uniform plasma. The transverse magnetic field accelerates the electrons trapped in the electron plasma wave(EPW) excited by SRS, which causes the nonlinear damping and reduces the nonlinear frequency shift of the EPW, thus narrowing the autoresonance space and significantly reducing the SRS reflectivity. Based on the characteristics that SRS can be suppressed by a transverse magnetic field and the SBS growth is sensitive to the laser bandwidth, a scheme is proposed that utilizing the transverse magnetic field and the broadband laser to suppress SRS and SBS simultaneously. When the transverse magnetic field is on the order of 10 T and the bandwidth is on the order of 0.001, both of which are easy to achieve in experiments, the total reflectivity of SRS and SBS can be effectively suppressed in the ICF-related plasmas.