Forward-looking insights in laser-generated ultra-intense γ-ray and neutron sources for nuclear application and science
M. M. Günther (),
O. N. Rosmej,
P. Tavana,
M. Gyrdymov,
A. Skobliakov,
A. Kantsyrev,
S. Zähter,
N. G. Borisenko,
A. Pukhov and
N. E. Andreev
Additional contact information
M. M. Günther: GSI-Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH
O. N. Rosmej: GSI-Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH
P. Tavana: Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
M. Gyrdymov: Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
A. Skobliakov: Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics named by A.I. Alikhanov of NRC >
A. Kantsyrev: Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics named by A.I. Alikhanov of NRC >
S. Zähter: GSI-Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH
N. G. Borisenko: P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS
A. Pukhov: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
N. E. Andreev: Joint Institute for High Temperatures, RAS
Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13
Abstract:
Abstract Ultra-intense MeV photon and neutron beams are indispensable tools in many research fields such as nuclear, atomic and material science as well as in medical and biophysical applications. For applications in laboratory nuclear astrophysics, neutron fluxes in excess of 1021 n/(cm2 s) are required. Such ultra-high fluxes are unattainable with existing conventional reactor- and accelerator-based facilities. Currently discussed concepts for generating high-flux neutron beams are based on ultra-high power multi-petawatt lasers operating around 1023 W/cm2 intensities. Here, we present an efficient concept for generating γ and neutron beams based on enhanced production of direct laser-accelerated electrons in relativistic laser interactions with a long-scale near critical density plasma at 1019 W/cm2 intensity. Experimental insights in the laser-driven generation of ultra-intense, well-directed multi-MeV beams of photons more than 1012 ph/sr and an ultra-high intense neutron source with greater than 6 × 1010 neutrons per shot are presented. More than 1.4% laser-to-gamma conversion efficiency above 10 MeV and 0.05% laser-to-neutron conversion efficiency were recorded, already at moderate relativistic laser intensities and ps pulse duration. This approach promises a strong boost of the diagnostic potential of existing kJ PW laser systems used for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) research.
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27694-7 Abstract (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27694-7
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27694-7
Access Statistics for this article
Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie
More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().