The article presents a new experimental portable pulsed neutron generator based on a laser-plasma ion diode with magnetic insulation and the results of the first experiments. The laser-plasma diode makes it possible to obtain large ion current pulses that generate high-intensity neutron radiation. The source of optical radiation was a pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm, a pulse energy of up to 0.7 J, and a duration of ~10 ns. The ion beam is accelerated by an Arkadiev-Marx pulsed voltage generator with a voltage amplitude of up to 250 kV, a duration of up to 1.5 µs, and an energy of up to 160 J. Neutrons were generated using the reaction d(d,n)3He. A neutron yield of 2·107 neutron/pulse was obtained.

Abstract—The acceleration of a plasmoid, for the formation of which a conical spiral expanding in the direction of the expected plasma acceleration is used, in a rapidly increasing magnetic field of complex geometry has been considered. An algorithm for calculating the longitudinal magnetic field in the approximation of replacing a spiral line with a system of rings of variable radius has been presented. A mathematical model that is based on the interaction of the plasmoid magnetic moment with gradient of the longitudinal magnetic field decay has been proposed to analyze the efficiency of the acceleration. The possibility of deuterons reaching an average speed exceeding 10^6 m/s has been shown.

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