Introducing the fission–fusion reaction process: using a laser-accelerated Th beam to produce neutron-rich nuclei towards the N=126 waiting point of the r-process

Habs, D.; Thirolf, P. G.; Groß, M.; Allinger, K.; Ji, Bin; Henig, A.; Kiefer, Daniel; Ma, Wu; Schreiber, Jörg

doi:10.1007/s00340-010-4261-x

Cited by 58 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The availability of high-power laser pulses with intensities reaching 10 23 W/cm 2 , which corresponds to light pressures of 10 13 Tor, is expected to open new regimes for laser-driven particle acceleration. Day-one experiments, after commissioning the laser beams, will target proton acceleration up to 200 MeV through laser-matter interaction on ≤ 1 μm CH targets.…”

Section: Nuclear Physics In Astrophysics Research At the Eli-np Hplsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On a longer term, this program aims at acceleration of dense beams of actinide nuclei at energies above the Coulomb barrier for nuclear reactions, and investigation of the mechanism of the fission-fusion reaction [13]. In the first stage of the reaction, the accelerated actinide nuclei impinge on a secondary target and fission.…”

Section: Nuclear Physics In Astrophysics Research At the Eli-np Hplsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nuclear physics and astrophysics experiments at ELI-NP: The emerging future

Balabanski

2017

EPJ Web Conf.

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Abstract. The status of implementation of the ELI-NP high-power laser system and the high-brilliance gamma beam system is reported. The emerging experimental program at the facility in nuclear physics in astrophysics is discussed, with emphasis of the considered day-one experiments. The ELI-NP FacilityThe main research tools at Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility are a high-power laser system (HPLS) and a high-brilliance gamma-beam system (GBS) [1]. They are superior to what is available at present in research laboratories worldwide. The mission of the facility, which will become operational in 2019 as an open access user facility, is cutting-edge research in the field of nuclear photonics. The HPLS has central wavelength of 815 nm, reaching 10 PW peak power in pulses of duration below 22 fs, with a contrast of 10 13 :1 at 100 ps and 10 9 :1 at 10 ps ahead of the pulse peak. It has two laser arms, operated by a common front-end. Each laser arm has three optical compressors, at 10 PW, 1 PW and 100 TW. The 10 PW outputs can provide pulses once per minute, the 1 PW outputs operate at 1 Hz and the 100 TW outputs -at 10 Hz. The two arms will be synchronized and experiments with any combination of pulses will be possible [2,3]. The HPLS system and the support target laboratory are placed in clean room areas.The ELI-NP GBS will provide beams in the range between 200 keV and 19.5 MeV with a bandwidth better than 0.5%, spectral density of about 10 4 photons/(eV·s) and linear polarization higher than 95%. The gamma beam will be produced by inverse Compton scattering of 515 nm green laser light, provided by 100 Hz Yb:YAG lasers, off electron beams accelerated to relativistic energies by a warm linac consisting of S-band photoinjector and C-band acceleration cavities [4]. The electrons will interact with the laser beams at two interaction points, at low and high electron beam energies, producing low (200 keV to 3.5 MeV) and high energy (3 MeV to 19.5 MeV) gamma beams. The gamma beams will be delivered along two beam lines, placed after each interaction point. The electron beam will be bunched with a frequency of 100 Hz, and each bunch will consist of a train of 32 microbunches. Laser re-circulators will be used at the interaction points to

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Section: Nuclear Physics In Astrophysics Research At the Eli-np Hplsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Nuclear Physics In Astrophysics Research At the Eli-np Hplsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear physics and astrophysics experiments at ELI-NP: The emerging future

Balabanski

2017

EPJ Web Conf.

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“…[12]. Of special interest is to test the proposed fission-fusion reaction mechanism [13]. In this reaction, laser-accelerated actinide ions, e.g.…”

Section: Hpls Nuclear Physics Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards experiments at the new ELI-NP facility

Balabanski

Cǎta-Danil

Filipescu

et al. 2014

EPJ Web of Conferences

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Abstract. The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Pan-European initiative represents a major step forward in quest for extreme electromagnetic fields. The Extreme Light Infrastructure -Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) laboratory is one of the three pillars of the ELI project, that aims to use such extreme electromagnetic fields for nuclear physics and quantum electrodynamics research. At ELI-NP two ten petawatt high-power laser systems together with a very brilliant narrow-width γ beam are the main research tools. Here the current status of the project and the experimental program related to nuclear research, which is under preparation at ELI-NP, are presented. The ELI-NP projectELI-NP [1] is one of the three laboratories under construction, related the ELI project [2], the other two being laser-driven secondary beams in Prague, the Czech Republic [3] and attosecond pulsed lasers in Szeged, Hungary [4]. In 2012 the 293-million-euro ELI-NP project was approved by the European Commission. ELI-NP will host two ultra high-power 10 PW lasers and a gamma beam system (GBS) which will deliver laser and γ-ray beams with parameters beyond those available at the present-stateof-the-art machines. The main laboratory building covers an area of more than 12000 m 2 . Its lay-out is displayed in Fig 1. The high-power laser system (HPLS) and the gamma beam system (GBS) are placed in the laboratory building, adjacent to the corresponding experimental areas. They will be mounted on an anti-vibration slab, damping vibrations to frequencies ≤ 10 Hz with amplitudes down to ±1 μm.The HPLS will have six output lines -two at 10 PW with a frequency of ≥ 1/60 Hz, two at 1 PW with a frequency of ≥ 1 Hz and two at 100 TW with a frequency of ≥ 10 Hz. Each output will have its optical pulse compressor. The duration of the pulses from each of the six outputs of the HPLS shall be tunable from the best compression level to at least 5 ps pulse duration, with both positive and negative chirp. The HPLS outputs will be synchronized with accuracy below 200 fs [5]. The laser system will deliver pulses synchronously with the GBS electron and γ bunches.The GBS is designed and constructed by the European consortium EuroGammaS, led by the Italian INFN LNF, including research and industrial partners from eight European countries. It will produce highly polarized (> 95%) tunable γ beams of spectral density of 10 4 photons/s/eV in the range from 200 keV to 19.5 MeV with a bandwidth of > 0.3% [6,7]. The γ beams will be produced through laser Compton backscattering (LCB) off an accelerated electron beam delivered by a linear a

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“…In the basic concept of the fission-fusion reaction mechanism [2,6], fissile isotopes (like 232 Th) accelerated by an intense laser pulse will enable the interaction of a dense beam of fission fragments with a second target, also consisting of fissile isotopes. So finally in a second step of the reaction process, fusion between (neutron-rich) beam-like and target-like (light) fission products will become possible, generating extremely neutron-rich ion species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical studies of acceleration of thorium ions by a laser pulse of ultra-relativistic intensity

Domański

Badziak

2018

EPJ Web of Conferences

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Abstract. One of the key scientific projects of ELI-Nuclear Physics is to study the production of extremely neutron-rich nuclides by a new reaction mechanism called fission-fusion using laser-accelerated thorium ( 232 Th) ions. This research is of crucial importance for understanding the nature of the creation of heavy elements in the Universe; however, they require Th ion beams of very high beam fluencies and intensities which are inaccessible in conventional accelerators. This contribution is a first attempt to investigate the possibility of the generation of intense Th ion beams by a fs laser pulse of ultra-relativistic intensity. The investigation was performed with the use of fully electromagnetic relativistic particle-in-cell code. A sub-µm thorium target was irradiated by a circularly polarized 20-fs laser pulse of intensity up to 10 23 W/cm 2 , predicted to be attainable at ELI-NP. At the laser intensity ~ 10 23 W/cm 2 and an optimum target thickness, the maximum energies of Th ions approach 9.3 GeV, the ion beam intensity is > 10 20 W/cm 2 and the total ion fluence reaches values ~ 10 19 ions/cm 2 . The last two values are much higher than attainable in conventional accelerators and are fairly promising for the planned ELI-NP experiment.

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Introducing the fission–fusion reaction process: using a laser-accelerated Th beam to produce neutron-rich nuclei towards the N=126 waiting point of the r-process

Cited by 58 publications

References 56 publications

Nuclear physics and astrophysics experiments at ELI-NP: The emerging future

Nuclear physics and astrophysics experiments at ELI-NP: The emerging future

Towards experiments at the new ELI-NP facility

Numerical studies of acceleration of thorium ions by a laser pulse of ultra-relativistic intensity

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