Comment on "Observation of neutronless fusion reactions in picosecond laser plasmas"

Abstract

The paper by Belyaev et al. [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 72}, 026406 (2005)] reported the first experimental observation of alpha particles produced in the thermonuclear reaction ${}^{11}$B($p,\alpha$)${}^8$Be induced by laser-irradiation on a ${}^{11}$B polyethylene (CH${}_2$) composite target. The laser used in the experiment is characterized by a picosecond pulse duration and a peak of intensity of 2$\times 10^{18}$ W/cm${}^2$. We suggest that both the background-reduction method adopted in their detection system and the choice of the detection energy region of the reaction products are possibly inadequate. Consequently the total yield reported underestimates the true yield. Based on their observation, we give an estimation of the total yield to be higher than their conclusion, i.e., of the order of 10${}^5\alpha$ per shot.

arXiv comment3 figures, accepted for publication in the Comment section of Physical Review E

References in corpus (1)

• Astrophysical Reaction Rates for ${}^{10}$B(p,$\alpha$)${}^7$Be and ${}^{11}$B(p,$\alpha$)${}^8$Be From a Direct Model

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Fusion reactions initiated by laser-accelerated particle beams in a laser-produced plasma
• Alpha-particle generation from H-11B fusion initiated by laser-accelerated boron ions
• Gamow peak approximation near strong resonances
• Laser initiated p-11B fusion reactions in petawatt high-repetition-rates laser facilities
• Thermal and chaotic distributions of plasma in laser driven Coulomb explosions of deuterium clusters
• Hydrodynamic Scaling Analysis of Nuclear Fusion driven by ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions