Prof Peter Norreys FInstP;

Abstract:

Heavy-ion induced nuclear reactions in materials exposed to energetic ions produced from high-intensity ([Formula presented]) laser-solid interactions have been experimentally investigated for the first time. Many of the radionuclides produced result from the creation of “compound nuclei” with the subsequent evaporation of proton, neutron, and alpha particles. Results are compared with previous measurements with monochromatic ion beams from a conventional accelerator. Measured nuclide yields are used to diagnose the acceleration of ions from laser-ablated plasma to energies greater than 100 MeV. © 2003 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

An innovative target design was used to perform the first studies of the propagation of very high current laser-produced electron beams in a regime relevant to the fast ignition scheme. Although it appears that (Weibel) and two-stream instabilities in plasmas where the beam density was close to the background plasma density-use of cone-guided schemes for fast ignition may be able to reduce the propagation distance of the electron beam and reduce the effect of these instabilities.

Abstract:

The process of fast ignition (FI) using various laser systems was analyzed. A Petta watt (PW) laser system was used to study the basic elements relevant to FI, which could also be injected to a compressed core. Using a spherical target inserted with a Au cone guide for the PW laser pulse, an imploded core was heated upto 1 keV resulting in neutron increase which is 1000 times more than that without heating pulse.