In light of the ongoing climate and energy crisis, sustainable power generation is urgently needed. Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a promising alternative that uses lasers to ignite small, fuel-filled targets, triggering a fusion reaction. This all-weather technology produces no long-lived radioactive waste and poses fewer safety risks than nuclear fission. In 2022, ICF demonstrated its first net energy gain. However, there is still a long way to go before it can be commercialized.

Currently, diamond targets are used that are time- and cost- intensive while having a high rejection rate and a limited batch size. In contrast,microfluidic chips hold great promise for producing economical fusion targets. Together with the startup Focused Energy, we research on making microfluidically produced targets competitive and ensure they meet required standards.