Experimental study of fusion neutron and proton yields produced by petawatt-laser-irradiated D2-3He or CD4-3He clustering gases

TL;DR

This study investigates fusion neutron and proton yields from laser-irradiated D2-3He or CD4-3He gases, demonstrating high plasma temperatures and isotropic fusion product distribution consistent with plasma models.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of fusion yields from cluster-irradiated gases and reports the highest ion temperature achieved with laser-irradiated deuterium clusters.

Findings

Fusion yields agree with plasma model predictions.

Fusion products are isotropically distributed.

Achieved highest ion temperature with laser-irradiated deuterium clusters.

Abstract

We report on experiments in which the Texas Petawatt laser irradiated a mixture of deuterium or deuterated methane clusters and helium-3 gas, generating three types of nuclear fusion reactions: D(d, 3He)n, D(d, t)p and 3He(d, p)4He. We measured the yields of fusion neutrons and protons from these reactions and found them to agree with yields based on a simple cylindrical plasma model using known cross sections and measured plasma parameters. Within our measurement errors, the fusion products were isotropically distributed. Plasma temperatures, important for the cross sections, were determined by two independent methods: (1) deuterium ion time-of-flight, and (2) utilizing the ratio of neutron yield to proton yield from D(d, 3He)n and 3He(d, p)4He reactions, respectively. This experiment produced the highest ion temperature ever achieved with laser-irradiated deuterium clusters.