Neutron Production from Structured Targets Irradiated By an Ultrashort Laser Pulse

Abstract

We study the laser-driven generation of thermonuclear neutrons from targets with a microstructured surface in the form of deuterated microwires, using three-dimensional numerical simulation with previously obtained results of large-scale structural optimization of the target, which provides its best heating by femtosecond laser pulses of moderate intensity. We show that, for modern laser technologies, femtosecond lasers of low (several mJ) energy are even better for creating a neutron source than more powerful (∼1 J) lasers because the mode of high (∼1 kHz) pulse repetition rate is practically available. Microlayers (relief) and cylindrical microholes on the irradiated side are considered as alternative microstructured targets. For the latter, we demonstrate accumulation of ions on the axis of the holes, which leads to increase in the ion density above the initial value and consequently to a possible increase in the yield of thermonuclear neutrons.

Deuterium–deuterium fusion in nanowire plasma driven with a nanosecond high-energy laser

“…One of the primary objectives in laser-driven plasma is to accelerate a maximum number of particles or produce more secondary particles for both fundamental and applied physics research, which include photonuclear physics, photonuclear transmutation, and radiography (involving electrons, protons, X/γ rays, and neutrons). Several methods have been proposed and demonstrated to significantly improve the energy conversion efficiency in laser-driven plasma, such as near-critical density plasma targets, plasma waveguides, grating targets, T-shaped targets, nanowire targets, and others [3,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. The use of the relativistic femtosecond (fs) laser to irradiate nanowire targets has been demonstrated through both theoretical models and experiments to significantly enhance energy conversion efficiency.…”