Optimum laser intensity for the production of energetic deuterium ions from laser-cluster interaction

Abstract

We measured, using Petawatt-level pulses, the average ion energy and neutron yield in high-intensity laser interactions with molecular clusters as a function of laser intensity. The interaction volume over which fusion occurred (1-10 mm^3) was larger than previous investigations, owing to the high laser power. Possible effects of prepulses were examined by implementing a pair of plasma mirrors. Our results show an optimum laser intensity for the production of energetic deuterium ions both with and without the use of the plasma mirrors. We measured deuterium plasmas with 14 keV average ion energies, which produced 7.2x10^6 and 1.6x10^7 neutrons in a single shot with and without plasma mirrors, respectively. The measured neutron yields qualitatively matched the expected yields calculated using a cylindrical plasma model.

24 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Temperature measurements of fusion plasmas produced by petawatt laser-irradiated D2-3He or CD4-3He clustering gases

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Uniform heating of materials into the warm dense matter regime with laser-driven quasi-monoenergetic ion beams
• Experimental study of fusion neutron and proton yields produced by petawatt-laser-irradiated D2-3He or CD4-3He clustering gases
• Emission of electromagnetic waves as a stopping mechanism for nonlinear collisionless ionization waves in a high-$\beta$ regime