Generation of α-Particle Beams With a Multi-kJ, Peta-Watt Class Laser System
D. Margarone, A. Morace, J. Bonvalet, Y. Abe, V. Kantarelou, D. Raffestin, L. Giuffrida, Philippe Nicolaï, Marco Tosca, A. Picciotto, Giada Petringa, G.A.P. Cirrone, Yuji Fukuda, Yasuhiro Kuramitsu, H. Habara, Yasunobu Arikawa, Shinsuke Fujioka, E. d’Humières, G. Korn, D. Batani
Abstract
We present preliminary results on generation of energetic -particles driven by lasers. The experiment was performed at the Institute of Laser Engineering in Osaka using the short-pulse, high-intensity, high-energy, PW-class laser. The laser pulse was focused onto a thin plastic foil (pitcher) to generate a proton beam by the well-known TNSA mechanism which, in turn, was impinging onto a boron-nitride (BN) target (catcher) to generated alpha-particles as a result of proton-boron nuclear fusion events. Our results demonstrate generation of -particles with energies in the range 8-10 MeV and with a flux around 5 e9 sr-1.