Parameter optimization for fusion neutron yield from deuterium cluster explosion driven by intense femtosecond laser pulses

Li, Hongyu; Liu, Jiansheng; Ni, Guoquan; Li, Ruxin; Xu, Zhizhan

doi:10.1103/physreva.79.043204

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…After compression, the pulse continued in vacuum, directed to reflect off the f /40 spherical mirror that focuses the 22 cm diameter flat-top beam to a 200 μm diameter focal spot in the target chamber with a Rayleigh length of 2 cm. This created a relatively large interaction volume compared with previous experiments [1,3,[9][10][11][12][13][14] to increase neutron yields [16]. The spherical mirror could be translated along the laser propagation direction to adjust the distance between the optical focus and the position of the cluster-producing nozzle.…”

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confidence: 99%

Optimization of the neutron yield in fusion plasmas produced by Coulomb explosions of deuterium clusters irradiated by a petawatt laser

et al. 2013

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The kinetic energy of hot (multi-keV) ions from the laser-driven Coulomb explosion of deuterium clusters and the resulting fusion yield in plasmas formed from these exploding clusters has been investigated under a variety of conditions using the Texas Petawatt laser. An optimum laser intensity was found for producing neutrons in these cluster fusion plasmas with corresponding average ion energies of 14 keV. The substantial volume (1-10 mm 3 ) of the laser-cluster interaction produced by the petawatt peak power laser pulse led to a fusion yield of 1.6 ×10 7 neutrons in a single shot with a 120 J, 170 fs laser pulse. Nuclear fusion from laser-heated deuterium clusters has been studied since 1999 [1]. Deuterium clusters are nanometerscale assemblies of atoms bound at liquid density by van der Waals forces, which can be produced by forcing cold deuterium gas under high pressure through a supersonic nozzle into vacuum. In these experiments, the deuterium clusters are irradiated by an intense ultrashort laser pulse. The clusters absorb the pulse energy very efficiently [2] and the process by which the ions attain their high kinetic energies has been well explained by the Coulomb explosion model [3,4]. In this model, the electrons in the atomic cluster first absorb the laser pulse energy as the atoms are ionized. The electrons further gain energy through other absorption mechanisms such as above-threshold ionization [5], inverse bremsstrahlung heating [6], resonant heating [6][7][8], and escape from the space-charge forces of the cluster, on the time scale of tens of fs. At high enough laser intensity, almost all of the electrons are removed from the cluster on a time scale short relative to the ion motion. What remains is a highly charged cluster of ions at liquid density, which promptly explodes by Coulomb repulsion.In experiments with peak laser intensities of 10 16 -10 18 W/cm 2 , deuterium ions with average kinetic energies up to about 10 keV have been observed, which were energetic enough to drive DD fusion events in a plasma with an average ion density near 10 19 cm −3 [9][10][11][12]. DD fusion can also occur when energetic ions collide with cold atoms in the background gas jet [13]. As a result of both of these fusion reactions, quasimonoenergetic 2.45 MeV neutrons are produced from the localized fusion plasma in a subnanosecond burst until the plasma disassembles in about 100 ps.Neutron yields greater than 10 8 n/shot would yield neutron fluences near the cluster jet greater than 10 10 n/cm 2 enabling subnanosecond time-resolved pump-probe experiments of neutron damage studies [14]. The petawatt lasers currently operating and being built with pulse durations below 200 fs have the potential to drive such sources. Therefore, the laser-cluster-generated fusion plasma is attractive as a bright, * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: dws223@physics.utexas.edu short, and localized neutron source that is potentially useful for material damage studies.In this paper, we describe the scaling of cluster pl...

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Optimization of the neutron yield in fusion plasmas produced by Coulomb explosions of deuterium clusters irradiated by a petawatt laser

et al. 2013

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“…The system is three large atomic ensembles trapped in a single-mode cavity, depicted in figure 3; a detailed description of this system is found in, e.g., [40][41][42][43][44][45]. The annihilation operator a 1 represents the cavity mode and = a k where ϕ π ∈ [0, 2 ) k is the laser phase, N is the number of atoms in each ensemble, μ is the coupling strength and δ is the detuning.…”

Section: The Atomic Ensembles Trapped In a Cavitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper, we consider a general passive linear system, which models a wide variety of systems such as optical systems [18-20, 22, 34, 35], nano-mechanical oscillators [21,36,37], vibration mode of a trapped particle [38,39], and atomic ensembles [24][25][26][27][28][29][40][41][42][43][44][45]. As mentioned before, the system is assumed to contain a tunable memory subsystem; that is, by tuning a certain parameter, we can switch opening/closing of the memory subsystem, which is DF during the storage period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zero-dynamics principle for perfect quantum memory in linear networks

Yamamoto¹,

James²

2014

New J. Phys.

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In this paper, we study a general linear networked system that contains a tunable memory subsystem; that is, it is decoupled from an optical field for state transportation during the storage process, while it couples to the field during the writing or reading process. The input is given by a single photon state or a coherent state in a pulsed light field. We then completely and explicitly characterize the condition required on the pulse shape achieving the perfect state transfer from the light field to the memory subsystem. The key idea to obtain this result is the use of zero-dynamics principle, which in our case means that, for perfect state transfer, the output field during the writing process must be a vacuum. A useful interpretation of the result in terms of the transfer function is also given. Moreover, a four-node network composed of atomic ensembles is studied as an example, demonstrating how the input field state is transferred to the memory subsystem and what the input pulse shape to be engineered for perfect memory looks like.

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“…Table-top nuclear fusion in the chemical physics laboratory [1,2] was realized by nuclear fusion driven by Coulomb explosion (NFDCE) of assemblies of nanostructures, i.e., clusters (with initial radii R 0 = 1-10 nm) [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] , and nanodroplets (with R 0 = 10-500 nm) [15][16][17][18][19][20] , which are driven by ultraintense femtosecond near-infrared lasers [7,8,17] . The ultraintense laser pulses for generating Coulomb explosion (CE) of such nanostructures are characterized by ultrahigh intensities of up to 10 21 W · cm −2 , which can be produced from the currently available Terawatt and Pentawatt lasers [21] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ultraintense laser pulses for generating Coulomb explosion (CE) of such nanostructures are characterized by ultrahigh intensities of up to 10 21 W · cm −2 , which can be produced from the currently available Terawatt and Pentawatt lasers [21] . The interaction of ultraintense femtosecond near-infrared lasers with nanometer-sized matter [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] results in inner and outer ionization of the nanostructures [22][23][24] followed by CE, which produces high-energy (10 keV-15 MeV) ions in the energy domain of nuclear physics. Previous studies of NFDCE of clusters [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and of nanodroplets [17][18][19][20]24] involved nuclear reactions inside or outside the macroscopic plasma filament, which is produced by an assembly of Coulomb-exploding nanostructures within the focal volume of the laser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coulomb explosion of nanodroplets drives the conversion of laser energy to nuclear energy

Last

Ron

Heidenreich

et al. 2013

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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Theoretical-computational studies of table-top laser-driven nuclear fusion of high-energy (up to 15 MeV) deuterons with 7 Li, 6 Li, and D nuclei demonstrate the attainment of high fusion yields within a source-target reaction design. This constitutes a source of Coulomb-exploding deuterium nanodroplets driven by an ultraintense femtosecond near-infrared laser and a solid hollow cylindrical target containing the second element. The source-target reaction design attains the highest table-top fusion efficiencies (up to 4 × 10 9 J −1 per laser pulse) obtained to date. The highest conversion efficiency of laser energy to nuclear energy (10 −2 -10 −3 ) for table-top DD fusion attained in the source-target design is comparable to that for DT fusion currently accomplished for 'big science' inertial fusion setups.

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Parameter optimization for fusion neutron yield from deuterium cluster explosion driven by intense femtosecond laser pulses

Cited by 10 publications

References 49 publications

Optimization of the neutron yield in fusion plasmas produced by Coulomb explosions of deuterium clusters irradiated by a petawatt laser

Optimization of the neutron yield in fusion plasmas produced by Coulomb explosions of deuterium clusters irradiated by a petawatt laser

Zero-dynamics principle for perfect quantum memory in linear networks

Coulomb explosion of nanodroplets drives the conversion of laser energy to nuclear energy

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