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It was shown in 1999 that D2 cluster explosion under ultrashort intense laser irradiation can lead to ion energies sufficient to drive nuclear fusion reactions [Ditmire et al. Nature 398, 491]. We show how the use of molecular clusters allows to further enhance the ionic acceleration, allowing one to reach optimal fusion cross sections. A new low density high energy regime is described, in which fusion occurs via a spallation-like process. The process increases with laser intensity up to the relativistic threshold, at which the neutron production is overwhelmed by gamma production resulting from electron acceleration.

International audience; Following the interaction of superintense, short pulse lasers and plasmas, ions can be accelerated to velocities sufficient to drive nuclear fusion reactions, in particular, by the process of Coulomb explosion of clusters [T. Ditmire et al., Nature (London) 398, 491 (1999)]. We show here how short bursts of neutrons can be produced using a jet of low-density deuterated methane clusters. Ion velocity distributions were simultaneously measured by a Thomson parabola mass spectrometer, demonstrating deuteron energies up to 120 keV. We show that, in such conditions, nuclear fusion will occur not only in the hot plasma core, but also in the cold outer region by collision processes.

A laser–plasma interaction experiment was performed in order to match effective conditions for wake-field electron acceleration. A 30-fs pulse was made to interact with a preformed plasma generated via the exploding foil technique from a 1-μm-thick plastic film. The irradiance of the femtosecond pulse in the plasma was 1020 Wcm−2. The interaction conditions were investigated via imaging and spectroscopy at the fundamental and the second harmonic of the laser frequency, both forward and backward. Our data clearly show that conditions suitable for electron acceleration are achieved close to the propagation axis and can be easily reproduced from shot to shot. In contrast, significant growth of instabilities occurs at the boundaries of the interaction region. These observations are consistent with a preliminary evidence of forward acceleration of high-energy electrons. Optical, X-ray, and γ-ray data obtained for different positions of the foil target with respect to the laser focal plane further support this promising scenario.