Disassembly time of deuterium-cluster-fusion plasma irradiated by an intense laser pulse

Abstract

Energetic deuterium ions from large deuterium clusters (>10nm diameter) irradiated by an intense laser pulse (>10(16)W/cm(2)) produce DD fusion neutrons for a time interval determined by the geometry of the resulting fusion plasma. We present an analytical solution of this time interval, the plasma disassembly time, for deuterium plasmas that are cylindrical in shape. Assuming a symmetrically expanding deuterium plasma, we calculate the expected fusion neutron yield and compare with an independent calculation of the yield using the concept of a finite confinement time at a fixed plasma density. The calculated neutron yields agree quantitatively with the available experimental data. Our one-dimensional simulations indicate that one could expect a tenfold increase in total neutron yield by magnetically confining a 10-keV deuterium fusion plasma for 10ns.

Uniform heating of materials into the warm dense matter regime with laser-driven quasimonoenergetic ion beams

“…By directly illuminating a small, reduced-mass solid target with an intense laser beam, target temperatures on the order of 100 eV has been demonstrated [16]. Using even smaller targets (~10 nm radius spheres) [19], an ion temperature exceeding tens of keV has been achieved in the laboratory [10], which is sufficiently high for deuterium ions to produce nuclear fusion reactions efficiently [20][21][22][23].…”

Model-independent determination of the astrophysicalSfactor in laser-induced fusion plasmas

“…BB case, E D /2 for the BT case (since one deuteron is at rest) and 3/5E D for the d+ 3 He case, since the latter is at rest [21][22][23][24]28].…”

“…Following the approach of Refs. [21][22][23][24], we estimate the BB contribution to d+d fusion by approximating the plasma disassembly time as [28] …”

“…Thanks to the rapid development of high-intensity lasers, many facilities have the capability of delivering petawatt laser pulses onto small targets, providing new insights on light-matter interactions and nuclear physics. In particular, the Coulomb explosion [19][20][21][22][23][24] of D 2 molecular clusters induced by their interaction with an intense laser pulse gives the possibility of studying many nuclear reactions at very low energies inside a highly ionized medium.…”

Interatomic Potential in the Nonequilibrium Warm Dense Matter Regime

“…A challenging new question is the applicability of such interatomic potentials in the non-equilibrium warm dense matter regime that is characterized by degenerate and excited electrons as well as strongly correlated ions. This issue is particularly timely driven by the proliferation of experimental studies of such states produced by intense, ultrafast lasers [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], FEL [24][25][26][27][28][29], and laser-driven ion sources [30][31][32][33][34][35], together with the interest to model their behaviors and properties using MD simulations [22,23,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Here we report on the first assessment of such applicability by comparing MD simulations with the measurement of lattice disassembly times in f s-laser heated Au nanofoils at an energy density up to 4.3MJ/kg.…”