Energetic deuterium-ion beams and neutron source driven by multiple-laser interaction with pitcher-catcher target

Abstract

Multiple lasers interacting with a deuterated (D) pitcher-catcher target and neutron generation are investigated using two-dimensional hybrid particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that when multiple laser pulses are focused on the front surface of the pitcher layer, D + ion acceleration by target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) is enhanced by the interfering overlapped light fields and the resulting periodic target-surface structure. With three laser pulses each of 4.5 × 10 19 W cm −2 intensity, 33 fs duration and ~160 mJ energy, focusing at suitable angles on the pitcher layer, one can obtain 15 MeV D + ions and ~25% laser-to-D + ions energy conversion efficiency. As the resulting high-energy-density D + ions bombard the catcher layer, D-D fusion reactions are triggered. About 3.6 × 10 7 neutrons can be produced, with the maximum neutron production rate as high as 3.1 × 10 36 m −3 s −1 , almost an order of magnitude higher than that from a single laser of the same total energy.

Particle-in-cell modeling of a potential demonstration experiment for double pulse enhanced target normal sheath acceleration

“…We have begun this analysis (not shown) but find that the substantial difference in absorption in the two simulations makes it difficult to pinpoint the role of the magnetic field separately from the role of the increased absorption. Another interesting investigation would be to consider three laser pulses (for the same total energy) as proposed recently by Jiang et al 12 . We defer these questions for future work.…”

“…Ferri, Siminos, and Fülöp 10 , Ferri et al 11 find best results for these two pulses arriving at 45 degree angles of incidence with pulses arriving at 40 degrees and 50 degrees performing almost as well. Recently, Jiang et al 12 provided simulation results describing a similar approach to enhanced TNSA using three laser pulses instead of two. In the present work, we only discuss double pulse enhanced TNSA for simplicity and because a three pulse experiment is even more difficult to perform than a two pulse experiment.…”

Pulsed neutron source from interaction of relativistic laser pulse with micro-structure assisted pitcher–catcher target

“…is the temporal profile correction factor [18], λ D is the Debye length, and x D and x C are the locations of D + and C + ions, respectively. E max is thus approximated to 74 MeV, which is consistent with the simulation result in figure 2(a).…”

“…Unfortunately, strong light reflection from the pitcher layer is disadvantageous to the laser-to-target energy coupling efficiency and thus prevents the further ascension of the neutron yield, especially for ultrashort fs-level laser pulses. In earlier work, a submicron microstructural front-surface grating induced by the interference of multiple laser pulses was proposed to improve the laser absorption and final neutron yield [18]. However, it is in a two-dimensional (2D) geometric configuration.…”

Topological control of laser-driven acceleration structure for producing extremely bright ion beams

“…well as high energy conversion efficiency [1,2]. High-quality ion beams are of much interest to high-energy density physics, isochoric heating of matter, probing of transient electric and magnetic fields, neutron generation, proton-assisted nuclear reaction, fast ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), etc [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Several schemes for laser-driven ion acceleration have been proposed and investigated, including target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) [14,15], radiation-pressure acceleration (RPA) [16][17][18][19][20][21], breakout afterburner acceleration [22], and shock acceleration [23,24].…”