Development of a Setup for Material Identification Based on Laser-Driven Neutron Resonance Spectroscopy

Abstract

With the phasing out of many research reactors over the upcoming years, a shortcoming of small and medium sized neutron sources is to be expected. Laser-driven neutron sources have the potential to fill this void, with enormous progress being made in laser technology over the past years. Upcoming petawatt lasers with high repetition rates up to 10 Hz promise a tremendous increase in neutron flux. In this paper, a setup is developed and optimized to conduct neutron resonance spectroscopy at a laser-driven neutron source. This setup is then evaluated at an experimental campaign at the PHELIX laser system. Laser intensities up to 1021 W/cm² with a ns pre-pulse contrast of 10-7 were used for ion acceleration, resulting in (1.8±0.7)×108 N/sr per pulse corresponding to (2.3±1.0)×109 N in a 4 π equivalent. These pulses were moderated, collimated and investigated via the time of flight method in order to characterize the thermal neutron spectrum as well as the signal to noise ratio.

Electron-positron pairs and radioactive nuclei production by irradiation of high-Z target with γ-photon flash generated by an ultra-intense laser in the $λ^3$ regime

“…The remaining neutrons, especially the high energy ones, are generated mostly by titanium ions. High-flux neutron pulse sources find potential applications in nuclear waste management [39,40] and material science as neutron resonance spectroscopy [35,36] and neutron diffraction [38]. Photonuclear interaction of laser-driven γ-rays for neutron source generation is simulated using PIC and MC in [52].…”

“…We have also investigated the target thickness dependence of the number and total kinetic energy of various particles emitted from the lead target irradiated by lasergenerated γ-photons and charged particles separately. Such high-intensity neutron pulse sources can find potential applications in nuclear waste management [39,40] and material science as neutron resonance spectroscopy [35,36] for probing the interior ion temperature of opaque materials and neutron diffraction [38] for analysis of the atomic and magnetic structure of materials. The short pulse duration and the ability to dope only a given section of the material enable high temporal and spatial resolution of the analysis.…”

“…The pulsed sources of particles with such high energies can be used in the field of fundamental science as a positron injector for plasma-based wakefield accelerators [27], for electron-positron pair plasma studies of astrophysical phenomena [28][29][30][31], but also can find applications in medicine and material science as positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy [32][33][34], neutron resonance spectroscopy [35,36], neutron diffraction [37,38], and nuclear waste management [39,40]. Activation of residual nuclides can be used for the study of nuclear physics and astrophysics [41], and for direct applications in nuclear medicine [42].…”