Development of Gated Fiber Detectors for Laser-Induced Strong Electromagnetic Pulse Environments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a gated fiber detector designed to operate effectively in high-EMP environments caused by laser-induced plasma, enabling accurate detection of nuclear reaction products.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel gated fiber detector that shields against EMP interference, allowing reliable detection of nuclear particles in laser-induced plasma experiments.

Findings

Successfully detects nuclear reaction products amidst EMP noise

Operates effectively as a Time-of-Flight detector for various particles

Can be widely applied in high-intensity laser nuclear physics experiments

Abstract

With the development of laser technologies, nuclear reactions can happen in high-temperature plasma environments induced by lasers and have attracted a lot of attention from different physical disciplines. However, studies on nuclear reactions in plasma are still limited by detecting technologies. This is mainly due to the fact that extremely high electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) can also be induced when high-intensity lasers hit targets to induce plasma, and then cause dysfunction of many types of traditional detectors. Therefore, new particle detecting technologies are highly needed. In this paper, we report a recently developed gated fiber detector which can be used in harsh EMP environments. In this prototype detector, scintillating photons are coupled by fiber and then transferred to a gated photomultiplier tube which is located far away from the EMP source and shielded well. With those measures, the EMPs can be avoided, and this device has the capability to identify a single event of nuclear reaction products generated in laser-induced plasma from noise EMP backgrounds. This new type of detector can be widely used as a Time-of-Flight (TOF) detector in high-intensity laser nuclear physics experiments for detecting neutron, photons, and other charged particles.