Laser-driven neutron source from high temperature D-D fusion reactions
Xuejing Jiao, C. Curry, M. Gauthier, F. Fiuza, J. Kim, E. McCary, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, C. Schoenwaelder, R. Roycroft, G. Tiwari, G. Glenn, F. Treffert, T. Dit… 展开作者
Xuejing Jiao, C. Curry, M. Gauthier, F. Fiuza, J. Kim, E. McCary, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, C. Schoenwaelder, R. Roycroft, G. Tiwari, G. Glenn, F. Treffert, T. Ditmire, S. Glenzer, B. M. Hegelich
We report a laser-driven neutron source with high yield ($>10^8$/J) and high peak flux ($>10^{25}$/cm$^2$/s) derived from high-temperature deuteron-deuteron fusion reactions. The neutron yield and the fusion temperature ($\sim 200$ keV) in our experiment are respectively two orders of magnitude and one order of magnitude higher than any previous laser-induced D-D fusion reaction. The high-temperature plasma is generated from thin ($\sim 2\,μ$m), solid-density deuterium targets, produced by a cryogenic jet, irradiated by a 140 fs, 130 J petawatt laser with an F/3 off-axis parabola and a plasma mirror achieving fast volumetric heating of the target. The fusion temperature and neutron fluxes achieved here suggest future laser experiments can take advantage of neutrons to diagnose the plasma conditions and come closer to laboratory study of astrophysically-relevant nuclear physics.
We propose a laser-driven near-solid density nano-structured micro-reactor concept operating with mixed nuclear fusion fuels. The micro-reactor is capable of making use of a range of neutronic and aneutronic fuels. Its core parts consists of an embedded nanoscopic nuclear fuel based laser-driven nano-accelerator that is capable of producing non-thermal fuel distributions almost instantly.
Compared with the deuterium tritium (DT) fusion, the environmentally clean fusion of protons with 11B is extremely difficult. When instead of nanosecond laser pulses for thermal-ablating driven ignition, picosecond pulses are used, a drastic change by nonlinearity results in ultrahigh acceleration of plasma blocks. This radically changes to economic boron fusion by a measured new avalanche ignition.
We comment on Marvel Fusion's proposal to use ultra-short, intensive laser pulses impinging on nanostructured targets for the production of hot ions, with the ultimate aim of energy production through the p-11B fusion reaction. We show how a minimum requirement on the line density of the heated region arises also for such schemes aiming at ignition or just beam-energy amplification, which already for the D-T reaction are prohibitive if no pre-compression of the target is foreseen. We conclude that advanced ultra-short laser pulses can be of use for fusion applications only if the fusion reacti…
Fast ignition is an alternative concept of laser fusion in which the task of compressing the fusion pellet to supersolid densities is accomplished by the conventional high energy nanosecond glass lasers and the task of igniting the compressed pellet is given to a high intensity, moderate energy pico second source which can set the pellet ablaze (with DT fusion reactions) by creating an adequate size hot spot in it. In this letter, we present a conceptual method by which energy from carbon dioxide ($ CO_2 $) laser could be coupled to heat up ions produced in situ in the plasma, which in turn pr…
For developing a laser boron fusion reactor driven by picosecond laser pulses of more than 30 petawatts power, advances are reported about computations for the plasma block generation by the dielectric explosion of the interaction. Further results are about the direct drive ignition mechanism by a single laser pulse without the problems of spherical irradiation. For the sufficiently large stopping lengths of the generated alpha particles in the plasma results from other projects can be used.
In contrast to the broad stream of sustainable developments on fusion energy, new aspects are developed now by applying ultra-short, ultra-powerful laser pulses in a plasma-block ignition scheme by avoiding the well known difficulties of thermal-pressure instabilities and losses through using electro-dynamic non-thermal energy conversion. A further advantage is given by the new 10 kilo-Tesla magnetic fields for fusion of uncompressed proton-boron fuel which avoids problems of dangerous nuclear radiation.
Fusion energy from reacting hydrogen (protons) with the boron isotope 11 (HB11) resulting in three stable helium nuclei, is without problem of nuclear radiation in contrast to DT fusion. But the HB11 reaction driven by nanosecond laser pulses with thermal compression and ignition by lasers is extremely difficult. This changed radically when irradiation with picosecond laser pulses produces a non-thermal plasma block ignition with ultrahigh acceleration. This uses the nonlinear (ponderomotive) force to surprisingly resulting in same thresholds as DT fusion even under pessimistic assumption of b…
The declared aim of Marvel Fusion is the realization of a reactor based on the aneutronic fusion of proton and boron-11 nuclei in the near future, making use of latest-day laser technology and nano-structured materials. The aim of the preprint quoted above is to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy gain from the irradiation of an initially uncompressed target consisting of an array of nano-wires, by a femto-second laser. This proposal is in apparent contrast to text-book wisdom, which postulates - even for the fast-ignitor concept, and a DT fuel mix - a target density about 1000 times …
{A simple electrodynamic model is developed to define plasma-field structures in self-consistent ultra-relativistic laser-plasma interactions when the radiation reaction effects come into play. An exact analysis of a circularly polarized laser interacting with plasmas is presented. We define fundamental notations such as nonlinear dielectric permittivity, ponderomotive and dissipative forces acting in a plasma. Plasma-field structures arising during the ultra-relativisitc interactions are also calculated. Based on these solutions we show that about 50% of laser energy can be converted into gam…
A three dimensional molecular dynamic code is used to study the generation of fusion neutrons from Coulomb explosion of Deuterium clusters driven by intense near infra-red (NIR) laser ($λ=800nm$) of femtosecond pulse duration ($τ=50 fs$) under beam-target interaction scheme. We have considered various clusters of average sizes ($\langle R_0\rangle$=80,140,200Å) which are irradiated by a laser of peak spatial-temporal intensity of 1$\times10^{18} W/cm^{2}$. The effects of cluster size and spatial laser intensity distribution on ion energies due to the Coulomb explosion of the cluster are includ…
Extreme laser pulses driving non-equilibrium processes in high density plasmas permit an increase of the fusion of hydrogen with the boron isotope 11 by nine orders of magnitude of the energy gains above the classical values. This is the result of initiating the reaction by non-thermal ultrahigh acceleration of plasma blocks by the nonlinear (ponderomotive) force of the laser field, in addition to the avalanche reaction that has now been experimentally and theoretically manifested. The design of a very compact fusion power reactor is scheduled to produce then environmentally fully clean and in…
The fission-fusion reaction mechanism was proposed in order to generate extremely neutron-rich nuclei close to the waiting point N = 126 of the rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis process (r-process). The production of such isotopes and the measurement of their nuclear properties would fundamentally help to increase the understanding of the nucleosynthesis of the heaviest elements in the universe. Major prerequisite for the realization of this new reaction scheme is the development of laser-based acceleration of ultra-dense heavy ion bunches in the mass range of A = 200 and above. In this pa…
Stimulated Raman scattering of an ultra-intense laser pulse in plasmas is studied by perturbatively including the leading order term of the Landau-Lifshitz radiation reaction force in the equation of motion for plasma electrons. In this approximation, radiation reaction force causes phase shift in nonlinear current densities that drive the two Raman sidebands (anti-Stokes and Stokes waves), manifesting itself into the nonlinear mixing of two sidebands. This mixing results in a strong enhancement in the growth of the forward Raman scattering instability.
The ion phase-space dynamics in the Coulomb explosion of very large ($\sim 10^6 - 10^7$ atoms) deuterium clusters can be tailored using two consecutive laser pulses with different intensities and an appropriate time delay. For suitable sets of laser parameters (intensities and delay), large-scale shock shells form during the explosion, thus highly increasing the probability of fusion reactions within the single exploding clusters. In order to analyze the ion dynamics and evaluate the intracluster reaction rate, a one-dimensional theory is used, which approximately accounts for the electron exp…
In the laser --- electron beam head-on interaction electron energy can decrease due to radiation reaction, i.e. emission of photons. For 10--100~fs laser pulses and for the laser field strength up to the pair photoproduction threshold, it is shown that one can calculate the resulting electron and photon spectra as if the electron beam travels through a constant magnetic field. The strength of this constant field and the interaction time are found as functions of the laser field amplitude and duration. Using of constant field approximation can make a theoretical analysis of stochasticity of the…
Collisions between high intensity laser pulses and energetic electron beams are now used to measure the transition between the classical and quantum regimes of light-matter interactions. However, the energy spectrum of laser-wakefield-accelerated electron beams can fluctuate significantly from shot to shot, making it difficult to clearly discern quantum effects in radiation reaction, for example. Here we show how this can be accomplished in only a single laser shot. A millimeter-scale pre-collision drift allows the electron beam to expand to a size larger than the laser focal spot and develop …
The dynamics of nuclear reaction in plasma is a fundamental issue in many high energy density researches, such as the astrophysical reactions and the inertial confinement fusion. The effective reaction cross-sections and ion stopping power in plasma need to be taken into account to analyze the reactivity. In this research, we have experimentally investigated the from D-D reactions from interactions between deuteron beams and deuterated polystyrene (CD) plasma, driven by two laser pulses respectively. The neutron yields, plasma density and deuteron energy loss in plasma have been measured, and …
The effects of laser-plasma interactions (LPI) on the dynamics of inertial confinement fusion hohlraums is investigated via a new approach that self-consistently couples reduced LPI models into radiation-hydrodynamics numerical codes. The interplay between hydrodynamics and LPI -- specifically stimulated Raman scatter (SRS) and crossed-beam energy transfer (CBET) -- mostly occurs via momentum and energy deposition into Langmuir and ion acoustic waves. This spatially redistributes energy coupling to the target, which affects the background plasma conditions and thus modifies laser propagation. …
We develop the physical model and the system of equations for the impulse neutron source (INS) of high-energy neutrons ($\sim$14 MeV) emitted by fusion reactions during compression of D-T gas by cumulative detonation waves. The system of INS equations includes a system of gas dynamic equations that takes into account the energy transfer by radiation, equations for the radiation flux, the equation of the shock adiabat (the Hugoniot adiabat) for a compressed gas, and the equation for the neutron yield. We perform the INS dynamics simulation for the spherical and cylindrical geometries, and calcu…
Driver at 10 MJ and 1 shot/30min for inertial confinement fusion at high gain: efficient, compact, low-cost, low laser-plasma instabilities, beam-color selectable from 2 omega/3 omega/4 omega, applicable to multiple laser fusion schemes
In the present paper we introduce a new accelerator concept for ions. The accelerator is nano-structured and can consist of a range of materials. It is capable of generating large ionic currents at moderate ion energies. The nano-structures can be tailored towards the accelerator thus being capable of driving ion beams with very high efficiency. The accelerator is powered by laser arrays consisting of many repetitive and efficient lasers in the $100 \, \text{J}$ range with ultra-short intense laser pulses. Combining nano-structures and the proposed ultra-short pulse lasers can lead to new leve…
We discuss scaling laws of fusion yields generated by laser-plasma interactions. The yields are found to scale as a function of the laser power. The origin of the scaling law in the laser driven fusion yield is derived in terms of hydrodynamic scaling. We point out that the scaling properties can be attributed to the laser power dependence of three terms: the reaction rate, the density of the plasma and the projected range of the plasma particle in the target medium. The resulting scaling relations have a predictive power that enables estimating the fusion yield for a nuclear reaction which ha…
We propose a new method of detecting radiation reaction effects in the motion of particles subjected to laser pulses of moderate intensity and long duration. The effect becomes sizeable for particles that gain almost no energy through the interaction with the laser pulse.
Radiation reaction effects on ion acceleration in laser foil interaction are investigated via analytical modeling and multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We find the radiation effects are important in the area where some electrons move backwards due to static charge separation field at the laser intensity of 1022 W=cm2. Radiation reaction tends to impede these backwards motion. In the optical transparency region ion acceleration is enhanced when the radiation effects are considered.
Radiation reaction effects in the interaction of an electron bunch with a superstrong focused ultrashort laser pulse are investigated in the quantum radiation dominated regime. The angle-resolved Compton scattering spectra are calculated in laser pulses of variable duration using a semi-classical description for the radiation dominated dynamics and a full quantum treatment for the emitted radiation. In dependence of the laser pulse duration we find signatures of quantum radiation reaction in the radiation spectra, which are characteristic for the focused laser beam and visible in the qualitati…
The advent of high-intensity pulsed laser technology enables the generation of extreme states of matter under conditions that are far from thermal equilibrium. This in turn could enable different approaches to generating energy from nuclear fusion. Relaxing the equilibrium requirement could widen the range of isotopes used in fusion fuels permitting cleaner and less hazardous reactions that do not produce high energy neutrons. Here we propose and implement a means to drive fusion reactions between protons and boron-11 nuclei, by colliding a laser-accelerated proton beam with a laser-generated …
We investigate the feasibility of using laser accelerated protons/deuterons for positron emission tomography (PET) isotope production by means of the nuclear reactions $^{11}$B($p,n$)$^{11}$C and $^{10}$B($d,n$)$^{11}$C. The second reaction has a positive Q-value and no energy threshold. One can, therefore, make use of the lower energy part of the laser-generated deuterons, which includes the majority of the accelerated deuterons. The $^{11}$C produced from the reaction $^{10}$B($d,n$)$^{11}$C is estimated to be 7.4 $\times$ 10$^{9}$ per laser-shot at the Titan laser at Lawrence Livermore Nati…
Comment to the paper J. Yan et al. Experimental confirmation of driving pressure boosting and smoothing for hybrid-drive inertial fusion at the 100-kJ laser facility [Nature Communications (2023) 14:5782]
本文评论指出，由于缺乏关键实验数据，J. Yan 等人关于混合驱动惯性聚变驱动压力提升与平滑的实验验证结论不可信。
The scaling of reaction yields in light ion fusion to low reaction energies is important for our understanding of stellar fuel chains and the development of future energy technologies. Experiments become progressively more challenging at lower reaction energies due to the exponential drop of fusion cross sections below the Coulomb barrier. We report on experiments where deuterium-deuterium (D-D) fusion reactions are studied in a pulsed plasma in the glow discharge regime using a benchtop apparatus. We model plasma conditions using particle-in-cell codes. Advantages of this approach are relativ…
Due to screening effects, nuclear reactions in astrophysical plasmas may behave differently than in the laboratory. The possibility to determine the magnitude of these screening effects in colliding laser-generated plasmas is investigated theoretically, having as a starting point a proposed experimental setup with two laser beams at the Extreme Light Infrastructure facility. A laser pulse interacting with a solid target produces a plasma through the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration scheme, and this rapidly streaming plasma (ion flow) impacts on a secondary plasma created by the interaction of…
Földes and Pokol in their letter "Inertial fusion without compression does not work either with or without nanoplasmonics" criticized our works \cite{CS2015,CKP2018}. Here we refute their argumentation. Our proposed improvement is the combination of two basic research discoveries: (i) The possibility of detonations on space-time hyper-surfaces with time-like normal (i.e. simultaneous detonation in a whole volume) and (ii) to increase the ignition volume to the whole target, by regulating the laser light absorption using nanoantennas. These principles can be realized in an in-line, one dimensio…
It is possible using current high intensity laser facilities to reach the quantum radiation reaction regime for energetic electrons. An experiment using a wakefield accelerator to drive GeV electrons into a counterpropagating laser pulse would demonstrate the increase in the yield of high energy photons caused by the stochastic nature of quantum synchrotron emission: we show that a beam of $10^9$ 1 GeV electrons colliding with a 30 fs laser pulse of intensity $10^{22}~\text{Wcm}^{-2}$ will emit 6300 photons with energy greater than 700 MeV, $60\times$ the number predicted by classical theory.
The dynamics of energetic particles in strong electromagnetic fields can be heavily influenced by the energy loss arising from the emission of radiation during acceleration, known as radiation reaction. When interacting with a high-energy electron beam, today's lasers are sufficiently intense to explore the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction regimes. We report on the observation of radiation reaction in the collision of an ultra-relativistic electron beam generated by laser wakefield acceleration ($\varepsilon > 500$ MeV) with an intense laser pulse ($a_0 > 10$). W…
The production of intense neutron beams via thermonuclear reactions in laser-generated plasmas is investigated theoretically. So far, state-of-the-art neutron beams are produced via laser-induced particle acceleration leading to high-energy particle beams that subsequently interact with a secondary target. Here we show that neutron beams of two orders of magnitude narrower bandwidth can be obtained from thermonuclear reactions in plasmas generated by Petawatt-class lasers. The intensity of such neutron beams is about one or two orders of magnitude lower than the one of the state-of-the-art las…
The recently proposed Super Marx generator pure deuterium micro-detonation ignition concept is compared to the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility (NIF) Laser DT fusion-fission hybrid concept (LiFE) [1]. In a Super Marx generator a large number of ordinary Marx generators charge up a much larger second stage ultra-high voltage Marx generator, from which for the ignition of a pure deuterium micro-explosion an intense GeV ion beam can be extracted. A typical example of the LiFE concept is a fusion gain of 30, and a fission gain of 10, making up for a total gain of 300, with about 10 ti…
Charged particles accelerated by electromagnetic fields emit radiation, which must, by the conservation of momentum, exert a recoil on the emitting particle. The force of this recoil, known as radiation reaction, strongly affects the dynamics of ultrarelativistic electrons in intense electromagnetic fields. Such environments are found astrophysically, e.g. in neutron star magnetospheres, and will be created in laser-matter experiments in the next generation of high-intensity laser facilities. In many of these scenarios, the energy of an individual photon of the radiation can be comparable to t…
In fusion reactions, the Coulomb barrier selects particles from the high-momentum part of the distribution. Therefore, small variations of the high-momentum tail of the velocity distribution can produce strong effects on fusion rates. In plasmas several potential mechanisms exist that can produce deviations from the standard Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Quantum broadening of the energy-momentum dispersion relation of the plasma quasi-particles modifies the high-momentum tail and could explain the fusion-rate enhancement observed in low-energy nuclear reaction experiments.
Propagation of intense laser beams is crucial for inertial confinement fusion, which requires precise beam control to achieve the compression and heating necessary to ignite the fusion reaction. The National Ignition Facility (NIF), where fusion will be attempted, is now under construction. Control of intense beam propagation may be ruined by laser beam self-focusing. We have identified the maximum laser beam power that can propagate through fusion plasma without significant self-focusing and have found excellent agreement with recent experimental data, and suggest a way to increase that maxim…
Inertial confinement fusion hotspots and cluster Coulomb explosion plasmas may develop a positive net electric charge. The Coulomb barrier penetrability and the rate of nuclear fusion reactions at ultra-low energies ($\lesssim 10$ keV) are altered by such an environment. These effects are here studied via the screening potential approach. Approximate analytical results are developed by evaluating the average screening potential for some scenarios of interest. It is found that fusion is hindered for reactions between thermal fuel nuclei, while an enhancement is expected for secondary and "beam-…
The effects of coherently enhanced radiation reaction on the motion of subwavelength electron bunches in interaction with intense laser pulses are analyzed. The radiation reaction force behaves as a radiation pressure in the laser beam direction, combined with a viscous force in the perpendicular direction. Due to Coulomb expansion of the electron bunch, coherent radiation reaction effects only occur in the initial stage of the laser-bunch interaction while the bunch is still smaller than the wavelength. It is shown that this initial stage can have observable effects on the trajectory of the b…
We review five different derivations that demonstrate that the Salpeter formula for the plasma corrections to fusion rates is valid at the center of the sun with insignificant errors (~ percent). We point out errors in several recent papers that have obtained a variety of answers, some even with the wrong sign or the wrong functional dependence.
We suggest a ``ping-pong'' mechanism of enhancement for fusion reactions between a low energy external deuteron beam and the deuterons in a condensed matter or molecular target. The mechanism is based on the possibility of acceleration of a target deuteron by the Coulomb field of a projectile deuteron with its subsequent rebound from a heavy atom in matter and the following fusion of the two deuterons moving towards each other. This effectively converts the fixed target process into a colliding beam reaction. In a simple limiting case this reduces the negative penetrability exponent by a facto…
