High-repetition-rate, multi-MeV deuteron acceleration from converging heavy water microjets at laser intensities of 1021 W/cm2
F. Treffert, C. B. Curry, H.-G. J. Chou, Christopher J. Crissman, Daniel P. DePonte, Frederico Fiúza, G. D. Glenn, R. Hollinger, R. Nedbailo, Jaebum Park, Christopher Schoenwaelder, Huanyu Song, Shoujun Wang, J. J. Rocca, M. Roth, S. H. Glenzer, M. Gauthier
Abstract
We demonstrate high repetition-rate deuteron acceleration by irradiating a continuously flowing, ambient temperature liquid heavy water jet with the high-intensity ALEPH laser. The laser delivered up to 5.5 J (120 TW, 1.2 × 1021 W/cm2) laser energy on target at 0.5 Hz. A high repetition-rate Thomson parabola spectrometer measured the deuteron beam energy spectra on each shot for 60 sequential shots (two minutes). Peak fluxes of 5×1010 deuterons/sr/pulse, corresponding to an average flux of 1.5×1012 deuterons/sr/min, were demonstrated with deuteron energies reaching up to 4.4 MeV. High shot-to-shot stability is observed up to 40%–50% of the maximum deuteron energy. These deuteron beams are suited for fast neutron production through deuteron breakup in a converter yielding energies similar to deuteron–deuteron (D–D, 2.45 MeV) fusion reactions of importance for material damage studies.