Nuclear Emissions From Titanium Hydride/Deuteride Induced by Powerful Picosecond Laser Beam

Abstract

The emission of nuclear particles (protons, deuterons, neutrons and alpha particles) was detected during the irradiation of different targets, including 30 µm thick Ti metal and TiD foils, as well as CH 2 -film, by an intense picosecond laser beam (I = 2.0 × 10 18 W/cm 2 , λ = 1.053 µm). The nominally pure Ti metal target contained some adsorbed hydrogen (TiHx). It was shown, that the main component of emitted particles is consisted of protons/deuterons (Np ∼10 11 sr −1 per pulse) accelerated up to the energy Ep ≤ 0.8 MeV. Energetic 3 MeV protons and neutrons (∼10 4 per pulse into 4π sr.) were detected in the case of TiDx experiments, and both can be considered as a signature of the dd-fusion in the target. The emission of α-particles (Eα ≥ 10 MeV, Nα ∼ 10 4 sr −1 per pulse), never previously observed in experiments with solid (nonmetal-hydride) targets, was detected in the case of TiHx and TiDx foils. The emission of ions with mass A > 4 (N i ∼10 4 to 10 5 sr −1 per pulse) has also been detected on TiD/H targets. The energy of these ions, estimated with the shielding filters was found to be E i ≥ 3.0 MeV per nucleon.