Alpha-Particle Generation from H-¹¹B Fusion Initiated by Laser-Accelerated Boron Ions

Abstract

Here, we report the generation of MeV alpha-particles from H-11B fusion initiated by laser-accelerated boron ions. Boron ions with maximum energy of 6 MeV and fluence of 109/MeV/sr@5 MeV were generated from 60 nm-thick self-supporting boron nanofoils irradiated by 1 J femtosecond pulses at an intensity of 1019 W/cm2. By bombarding secondary hydrogenous targets with the boron ions, 3 × 105/sr alpha-particles from H-11B fusion were registered, which is consistent with the theoretical yield calculated from the measured boron energy spectra. Our results demonstrated an alternative way toward ultrashort MeV alpha-particle sources employing compact femtosecond lasers. The ion acceleration and product measurement scheme are referential for the studies on the ion stopping power and cross section of the H-11B reaction in solid or plasma.

Perspectives on research on laser driven proton-boron fusion and applications

“…[76][77][78][79]. New findings and promising results stimulate the growth of the community [80][81][82]. It requires technological progress allowing the production of new materials, detectors and data analysis techniques.…”

High-order harmonic generation, attosecond pulse, and non-sequential double ionization in the helium atom under high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses

“…The advancements in laser technology, specifically the implementation of the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique [1] have enabled the production of ultrashort laser pulses lasting only a few femtoseconds while attaining high intensities up to / 10 W cm 22 2 [2]. The interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with atoms and solidstate targets can cause amazing phenomena such as laser wakefield acceleration [3,4], ion beam acceleration [5,6], laser-driven fusion [7,8], high-order harmonic generation (HHG) [9,10], radiation generation [11,12], nuclear resonance fluorescence [13], vacuum birefringence [14][15][16], electron-positron pair production from vacuum [17,18], photon-photon scattering [19,20], and electromagnetic cascades [21,22].…”

Revisiting Experimental Signatures of the Ponderomotive Force

“…The α particles themselves provide the most direct measure of the fusion yield, but because they deposit their kinetic energy into the surrounding medium very efficiently, only a small fraction of those produced escape the target. This problem is especially acute in direct irradiation experiments [5,[13][14][15][16][17][18], where the mean kinetic energy and density of the medium vary by orders of magnitude in different regions of the target, precluding a systematic analytic correction for α stopping.…”