1. A multi-MeV alpha particle source via proton-boron fusion driven by a 10-GW tabletop laser.
- Author
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Istokskaia, Valeriia, Tosca, Marco, Giuffrida, Lorenzo, Psikal, Jan, Grepl, Filip, Kantarelou, Vasiliki, Stancek, Stanislav, Di Siena, Sabrina, Hadjikyriacou, Arsenios, McIlvenny, Aodhan, Levy, Yoann, Huynh, Jaroslav, Cimrman, Martin, Pleskunov, Pavel, Nikitin, Daniil, Choukourov, Andrei, Belloni, Fabio, Picciotto, Antonino, Kar, Satyabrata, and Borghesi, Marco
- Subjects
ALPHA rays ,NUCLEAR fusion ,ANGULAR distribution (Nuclear physics) ,CONTROLLED fusion ,PULSED lasers ,BORON isotopes ,PARTICLE beams - Abstract
Nuclear fusion between protons and boron-11 nuclei has undergone a revival of interest thanks to the rapid progress in pulsed laser technology. Potential applications of such reaction range from controlled nuclear fusion to radiobiology and cancer therapy. A laser-driven fusion approach consists in the interaction of high-power, high-intensity pulses with H- and B-rich targets. We report on an experiment exploiting proton-boron fusion in CN-BN targets to obtain high-energy alpha particle beams (up to 5 MeV) using a very compact approach and a tabletop laser system with a peak power of ~10 GW, which can operate at high-repetition rate (up to 1 kHz). The secondary resonance in the cross section of proton-boron fusion (~150 keV in the center-of-mass frame) is exploited using a laser-based approach. The generated alpha particles are characterized in terms of energy, flux, and angular distribution using solid-state nuclear-track detectors, demonstrating a flux of ~10
5 particles per second at 10 Hz, and ~106 per second at 1 kHz. Hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell numerical simulations support our experimental findings. Potential impact of our approach on future spread of ultra-compact, multi-MeV alpha particle sources driven by moderate intensity (1016 -1017 W/cm2 ) laser pulses is anticipated. Revived interest in proton-boron fusion has been fuelled by new laser matter interaction schemes with several possible applications. The authors report on a tabletop laser experiment that observes proton-boron fusion with an emphasis on the secondary cross-section peak around 150 keV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2023
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