Directed pulsed neutron source generation from inverse kinematic reactions driven by intense lasers

Yao Yilin; Wu Zhenbo; Ye Tao; Zhu Shaoping; He Xiantu; Qiao Bin

doi:10.1063/5.0207839

Volume 9 Issue 6

Nov. 2024

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Yao Yilin, Wu Zhenbo, Ye Tao, Zhu Shaoping, He Xiantu, Qiao Bin. Directed pulsed neutron source generation from inverse kinematic reactions driven by intense lasers[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2024, 9(6): 065201. doi: 10.1063/5.0207839

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Yao Yilin, Wu Zhenbo, Ye Tao, Zhu Shaoping, He Xiantu, Qiao Bin. Directed pulsed neutron source generation from inverse kinematic reactions driven by intense lasers[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2024, 9(6): 065201. doi: 10.1063/5.0207839

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Directed pulsed neutron source generation from inverse kinematic reactions driven by intense lasers

doi: 10.1063/5.0207839

Yao Yilin^1
,,
Wu Zhenbo^1
,,
Ye Tao^2
,,
Zhu Shaoping^2
,,
He Xiantu^2
,,
Qiao Bin^{1, 3
,
,
,}

1.
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2.
Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100094, China
3.
Frontiers Science Center for Nano-Optoelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100094, China

More Information

Corresponding author: a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: bqiao@pku.edu.cn
Received Date: 2024-03-11
Accepted Date: 2024-09-10

Available Online: 2024-11-01

Publish Date: 2024-11-01

Abstract

Abstract

Neutron production driven by intense lasers utilizing inverse kinematic reactions is explored self-consistently by a combination of particle-in-cell simulations for laser-driven ion acceleration and Monte Carlo nuclear reaction simulations for neutron production. It is proposed that laser-driven light-sail acceleration from ultrathin lithium foils can provide an energetic lithium-ion beam as the projectile bombarding a light hydrocarbon target with sufficiently high flux for the inverse p(Li7,n) reaction to be efficiently achieved. Three-dimensional self-consistent simulations show that a forward-directed pulsed neutron source with ultrashort pulse duration 3 ns, small divergence angle 26°, and extremely high peak flux 3 × 10¹⁴ n/(cm²⋅s) can be produced by petawatt lasers at intensities of 10²¹ W/cm². These results indicate that a laser-driven neutron source based on inverse kinematics has promise as a novel compact pulsed neutron generator for practical applications, since the it can operate in a safe and repetitive way with almost no undesirable radiation.

Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts to disclose.
Yilin Yao: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal); Project administration (equal); Resources (equal); Software (equal); Validation (equal); Visualization (equal); Writing – original draft (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Zhenbo Wu: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal). Tao Ye: Conceptualization (equal); Methodology (equal). Shaoping Zhu: Conceptualization (equal); Resources (equal); Supervision (equal). Xiantu He: Conceptualization (equal); Methodology (equal); Resources (equal). Bin Qiao: Conceptualization (equal); Funding acquisition (equal); Resources (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal).
Author Contributions
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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References(57)

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