Study of the atmospheric neutron radiation effects using compact laser-driven spallation neutron source

Abstract

We propose a laboratory accelerated test method for study of the atmospheric neutron radiation effects by using a compact laser-driven spallation neutron source (LDSNS). The LDSNS is obtained by injecting a GeV quasimonoenergetic proton beam accelerated by light-sail (LS) radiation pressure of intense lasers into a lead target. According to the LS scaling law, proton energy spectra can be regulated by adjusting the laser and foil target parameters, so that the neutron spectra at various atmospheric altitudes are well reproduced. Integrated PIC and MC simulations have verified the scheme (for that at altitude 12 km, laser intensity of 10^{22}W/cm^{2} is required) and shown that the neutron fluence per laser shot is as high as 1.73×10^{8}n/cm^{2}, equivalent to 3.7 year flux accumulation in atmosphere. Using the G4SEE toolkit, we estimate that the HM628128 SRAM may undergo an average of ten single event upsets per shot for the proposed laboratory test.