Investigation of Proton Beam-Driven Fusion Reactions Generated by an Ultra-Short Petawatt-Scale Laser Pulse

Figure 1

Experiment layout and target configuration. (a) shows a sketch of the target chamber with the relevant diagnostics. The laser pulse is focused by an f/2 off-axis parabolic mirror to an intensity of ∼5 × 10²¹ W/cm² onto a target at the center of the chamber. Thomson parabola (TP) ion spectrometers are used to diagnose the generated proton beam. A filtered CR39 solid-state nuclear track detector is used to corroborate the TP measurements. A neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) detector is placed in about 3 m distance along the target normal direction. The inset in the lower-left corner shows a photograph of the target holder. (b) shows a sketch of the pitcher-catcher configuration. The laser pulse irradiates a 30-μm boron nitride nanotube target to create a proton beam (pitcher). The protons then irradiate a secondary boron nitride target (catcher) in 400 μm distance to trigger nuclear reactions.

(a)

(b)