Ion heating and thermonuclear neutron production from high-intensity subpicosecond laser pulses interacting with underdense plasmas

S Fritzler; Z Najmudin; V Malka; K Krushelnick; C Marle; B Walton; M S Wei; R J Clarke; A E Dangor

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.165004

Ion heating and thermonuclear neutron production from high-intensity subpicosecond laser pulses interacting with underdense plasmas

Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Oct 14;89(16):165004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.165004. Epub 2002 Sep 30.

Authors

S Fritzler¹, Z Najmudin, V Malka, K Krushelnick, C Marle, B Walton, M S Wei, R J Clarke, A E Dangor

Affiliation

¹ Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605, CNRS-CEA, Ecole Polytechnique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 91128, Palaiseau, France.

PMID: 12398731
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.165004

Abstract

Thermonuclear fusion neutrons produced by D(d,n)3He reactions have been measured from the interaction of a high-intensity laser with underdense deuterium plasmas. For an input laser energy of 62 J, more than (1.0+/-0.2)x10(6) neutrons with a mean kinetic energy of (2.5+/-0.2) MeV were detected. These neutrons were observed to have an isotropic angular emission profile. By comparing these measurements with those using a secondary solid CD2 target it was determined that neutrons are produced from direct ion heating during this interaction.