A platform for nuclear physics experiments with laser-accelerated light ions

Abstract

A novel platform for nuclear physics experiments has been developed on the high-energy, short-pulse OMEGA EP Laser System. Planar foil targets are irradiated with a 10-ps, 1-kJ infrared beam focused to an intensity of the order of 1018 W/cm2. Relativistic electrons generated in the laser–target interaction escape the target, generating a very large electrostatic field, which extracts ions from the target’s back surface and accelerates them to MeV energies. The energetic ion flow from the back side of this primary target creates neutrons and charged particles through nuclear reactions in a secondary target placed in the ion flow. Charged-particle detectors were used to measure the energy spectra of the ions. The energy spectrum of the neutrons generated in the secondary target was measured using scintillator-based neutron time-of-flight detectors. First experiments to validate the performance of this setup studied d(d,n)3He and 9Be(d,n)10B reactions. This experimental platform is suitable especially for survey-type studies of nuclear reactions and for reactions that involve rare or radioactive ions like tritium.