Neutron production by fast protons from ultraintense laser-plasma interactions

Yang, J. M. and McKenna, P. and Ledingham, K. W.D. and McCanny, T. and Robson, L. and Shimizu, S. and Singhal, R. P. and Wei, M. S. and Krushelnick, K. and Clarke, R. J. and Neely, D. and Norreys, P. A. (2004) Neutron production by fast protons from ultraintense laser-plasma interactions. Journal of Applied Physics, 96 (11). pp. 6912-6918. ISSN 0021-8979 (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1814421)

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Abstract

Tens of MeV proton beams have been generated by interactions of the VULCAN petawatt laser with foil targets and used to induce nuclear reactions in zinc and boron samples. The numbers of 11C, 66Ga, 67Ga, 68Ga, 61Cu, 62Zn, 63Zn, and 69mZn nuclei have been measured and used to determine the proton energy spectrum. It is known that (p,n) reactions provide an important method for producing neutron sources and in the present experiment up to ∼109 neutrons sr-1 have been generated via 11B(p,n)11C reactions. Using experimentally determined proton energy spectra, the production of neutrons via (p,n) reactions in various targets has been simulated, to quantify neutron pulse intensities and energy spectra. It has been shown that as high as 4 × 109 neutrons sr-1 per laser pulse can be generated via 7Li(p,n) 7B reactions using the present VULCAN petawatt laser-pulse conditions.

ORCID iDs

Yang, J. M., McKenna, P. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8061-7091, Ledingham, K. W.D., McCanny, T., Robson, L., Shimizu, S., Singhal, R. P., Wei, M. S., Krushelnick, K., Clarke, R. J., Neely, D. and Norreys, P. A.;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:66966
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 December 2004
    Published
    21 September 2004
    Accepted
    Notes:This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in J. Appl. Phys. 96, 6912 (2004); and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1814421
    Subjects:Science > Physics
    Department:Faculty of Science > Physics > Optics
    Faculty of Science > Physics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:14 Feb 2019 11:27
    Last modified:19 Nov 2024 15:22
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/66966
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