Neutron imaging with the short-pulse laser driven neutron source at the Trident laser facility

Guler, N.; Volegov, P. L.; Favalli, Andrea; Merrill, F. E.; Falk, K.; Jung, Daniel; Tybo, J. L.; Wilde, C. H.; Croft, Stephen; Danly, C. R.; Deppert, O.; Devlin, M.; Fernández, Juan; Gautier, D. C.; Geißel, Matthias; Haight, R. C.; Hamilton, C. E.; Hegelich, B. M.; Henzlová, D.; Johnson, R. P.; Schaumann, G.; Schoenberg, Kurt F.; Schollmeier, M.; Shimada, T.; Swinhoe, Martyn T; Taddeucci, T.N.; Wender, S. A.; Wurden, G. A.; Roth, Markus

doi:10.1063/1.4964248

Cited by 39 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…radiography or spectroscopy), since temporally gated detectors could be synchronized with the laser pulse. Indeed, 'flash neutron radiography' has been suggested in previous works as an application especially suited for laser-driven neutron sources [85]. Overall, our modeling approach could be used to guide the design and the optimization of these kinds of applications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Enhanced laser-driven hadron sources with nanostructured double-layer targets

et al. 2020

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Laser-driven ion sources are approaching the requirements for several applications in materials and nuclear science. Relying on compact, table-top, femtosecond laser systems is pivotal to enable most of these applications. However, the moderate intensity of these systems (I10 19 W cm −2 ) could lead to insufficient energy and total charge of the accelerated ions. The use of solid foils coated with a nanostructured near-critical layer is emerging as a promising targeted solution to enhance the energy and the total charge of the accelerated ions. For an appropriate theoretical understanding of this acceleration scheme, a realistic description of the nanostructure is essential, also to precisely assess its role in the physical processes at play. Here, by means of 3D particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate ion acceleration in this scenario, assessing the role of different realistic nanostructure morphologies, such as fractal-like foams and nanowire forests. With respect to a simple flat foil, the presence of a nanostructure allows for up to a×3 increase of the maximum ion energy and for a significant increase of the conversion efficiency of laser energy into ion kinetic energy. Simulations show also that the details of the nanostructure morphology affect both the maximum energy of the ions and their angular distribution. Furthermore, combined 3D particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo simulations show that if accelerated ions are used for neutron generation with a beryllium converter, double-layer nanostructured targets allow to greatly enhance the neutron yield. These results suggest that nanostructured double-layer targets could be an essential component to enable applications of hadron sources driven by compact, table-top lasers. feasibility of laser-driven ion beam analysis for non-destructive materials characterization. Laser-driven ion sources have been considered to test electronic components in a harsh radiation environment [18], for thermal stress testing [19], to study ultra-fast dynamics in irradiated materials [20,21], and for materials synthesis [22,23]. Ultrashort pulsed neutron sources driven by laser-accelerated ions [24-32] have been investigated for applications such as fast neutron spectroscopy [33] and radiography [34].What make these applications particularly attractive are the requirements for the ion source. Energies of few MeVs are perfectly suitable for several ion beam analysis techniques [35] or to generate neutrons with a lithium [36] or beryllium [37] converter. Moreover, for selected applications, the inherently broad energy spectrum of a laser-driven ion source [2] is not detrimental [15,17] and could even be beneficial [18]. Maximum ion energies of ∼1 MeV have been recently demonstrated even with commercial, sub-terawatt laser systems [38]. These lasersystems are truly table-top and can operate at a high repetition rate (kiloHertz). Relying on these systems could make laser-driven ion sources portable and competitive with conventional accelerators, paving the way for their widesprea...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Enhanced laser-driven hadron sources with nanostructured double-layer targets

et al. 2020

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“…26. The neutron-source size (which limits the resolution of the image) was measured to be ∼1 mm 82 . For this measurement, the diagnostic was time-gated to accept neutrons in the energy range of 2.5–35 MeV.…”

Section: Neutron-generation and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-plasmas in the relativistic-transparency regime: Science and applications

et al. 2017

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Laser-plasma interactions in the novel regime of relativistically induced transparency (RIT) have been harnessed to generate intense ion beams efficiently with average energies exceeding 10 MeV/nucleon (>100 MeV for protons) at “table-top” scales in experiments at the LANL Trident Laser. By further optimization of the laser and target, the RIT regime has been extended into a self-organized plasma mode. This mode yields an ion beam with much narrower energy spread while maintaining high ion energy and conversion efficiency. This mode involves self-generation of persistent high magnetic fields (∼104 T, according to particle-in-cell simulations of the experiments) at the rear-side of the plasma. These magnetic fields trap the laser-heated multi-MeV electrons, which generate a high localized electrostatic field (∼0.1 T V/m). After the laser exits the plasma, this electric field acts on a highly structured ion-beam distribution in phase space to reduce the energy spread, thus separating acceleration and energy-spread reduction. Thus, ion beams with narrow energy peaks at up to 18 MeV/nucleon are generated reproducibly with high efficiency (≈5%). The experimental demonstration has been done with 0.12 PW, high-contrast, 0.6 ps Gaussian 1.053 μm laser pulses irradiating planar foils up to 250 nm thick at 2–8 × 1020 W/cm2. These ion beams with co-propagating electrons have been used on Trident for uniform volumetric isochoric heating to generate and study warm-dense matter at high densities. These beam plasmas have been directed also at a thick Ta disk to generate a directed, intense point-like Bremsstrahlung source of photons peaked at ∼2 MeV and used it for point projection radiography of thick high density objects. In addition, prior work on the intense neutron beam driven by an intense deuterium beam generated in the RIT regime has been extended. Neutron spectral control by means of a flexible converter-disk design has been demonstrated, and the neutron beam has been used for point-projection imaging of thick objects. The plans and prospects for further improvements and applications are also discussed.

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“…Measuring the edge-spread function (ESF) is a simple, inexpensive and widespread method to qualify the resolving power of optical systems [224]. We interpreted such measurement, similar to other measurements for X-ray [34] and neutron sources [225]. This setup involves no optical component.…”

Section: Source Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 91%

Relativistically Intense Laser–Microplasma Interactions

Ostermayr

2019

Springer Theses

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Diese Arbeit behandelt verschiedene Aspekte der Interaktion von relativistisch intensiven Laserpulsen mit Mikroplasmen. Dafür wurde zunächst eine Paul-Falle entwickelt, welche vollständig isolierte und definierte Mikrokugeln als Ziel für Experimente mit fokussierten Peta-Watt Laser-Pulsen bereitstellt. Solche Interaktionen wurden dann in der Theorie, in numerischen Simulationen und in einer Serie von Experimenten untersucht. Die erste wichtige Beobachtung hierbei war die Erzeugung manipulierbarer Protonenstrahlen mit kinetischen Energienüber 10 MeV. Die Modifikation in den spektralen und räumlichen Verteilungen erfolgte durch die Variation des Beschleunigungsmechanismus. Dies beinhaltet das Auftreten von Protonenstrahlen mit begrenzter spektraler Bandbreite, welcheähnliche Lasergetriebene Quellen in kinetischer Energie und/oder Teilchenfluenzübertreffen. Die relative Bandbreite von 20-25% wird durch die (isotrope) Coulomb Explosion oder durch gerichtete Beschleunigungsprozesse erreicht (Abb. 1a, sec. 5.3 und 5.4). Im zweiten Teil der Ar-Abbildung 1 | Zentrale Ergebnisse. a. Ionenquellen mit limitierter spektraler Bandbreite in dieser Arbeit (rot) im Kontext früherer Experimente mit Laser-Ionen-Beschleunigern (Quellen: [1-10]). Markiert ist je das spektrale Maximum, Fehlerbalken markieren die spektrale Breite (volle Breite bei halbem Maximalwert). b. Beispiel eines bimodalen Röntgen-und Protonenbildes (übereinander registriert). Der Skalenbalken entspricht 1 cm. Intensitäten sind in relativen Skalen angegeben und das Protonenbild wird zu 40% transparent dargestellt. beit wurden Mikronadeln mit Peta-Watt Laser-Pulsen beschossen um Röntgen-und Protonenstrahlen mit jeweils nur einigen Mikrometern effektiver Quellgröße zu erzeugen. Im Röntgenspektrum wurde ein Maximum um 6 keV und messbares Signal bisüber 10 keV beobachtet. Das Protonenspektrum zeigte erneut die quasi-monoenergetische Verteilung mit Peak-Energienüber 10 MeV (Abb. 1a, sec. 6.1). Nach der Charakterisierung der Quelle wurde diese für Bildgebung genutzt. Dabei konnte insbesondere die gleichzeitige Aufnahme von Röntgen-und Protonenbildern mit einem einzelnen Laserschuß gezeigt werden (Abb. 1b). Die Besonderheiten der Quelle erlaubten zudem Röntgenaufnahmen mit starkem Phasen-Kontrast Anteil, sowie die Untersuchung von quantitativen Einzelschuß Protonen-Radiographien.

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Neutron imaging with the short-pulse laser driven neutron source at the Trident laser facility

Cited by 39 publications

References 47 publications

Enhanced laser-driven hadron sources with nanostructured double-layer targets

Enhanced laser-driven hadron sources with nanostructured double-layer targets

Laser-plasmas in the relativistic-transparency regime: Science and applications

Relativistically Intense Laser–Microplasma Interactions

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