Deuterated polyethylene nanowire arrays for high-energy density physics

Abstract

The interaction of intense, ultrashort laser pulses with ordered nanostructure arrays offers a path to the efficient creation of ultra-high-energy density (UHED) matter and the generation of high-energy particles with compact lasers. Irradiation of deuterated nanowires arrays results in a near-solid density environment with extremely high temperatures and large electromagnetic fields in which deuterons are accelerated to multi-megaelectronvolt energies, resulting in deuterium–deuterium (D–D) fusion. Here we focus on the method of fabrication and the characteristics of ordered arrays of deuterated polyethylene nanowires. The irradiation of these array targets with femtosecond pulses of relativistic intensity and joule-level energy creates a micro-scale fusion environment that produced $2\times {10}^6$ neutrons per joule, an increase of about 500 times with respect to flat solid CD2 targets irradiated with the same laser pulses. Irradiation with 8 J laser pulses was measured to generate up to 1.2 × 107 D–D fusion neutrons per shot.

A laser parameter study on enhancing proton generation from microtube foil targets

“…Targets with non-protruding structure, such as layered foils 27 and microchannel slabs 28 have also been observed to improve hot electron generation. As electrons are the mediator for energy transfer into the target, similar structures are of interest for a wide variety of applications, including neutron generation 29 , X-ray and -ray emission 30 , 31 , positron generation 32 , and QED studies 33 . However, the focus of this work is the performance of structured targets in enhancing laser-ion acceleration.…”

“…similar structures are of interest for a wide variety of applications, including neutron generation 29 , X-ray and γ -ray emission 30,31 , positron generation 32 , and QED studies 33 . However, the focus of this work is the performance of structured targets in enhancing laser-ion acceleration.…”