Frontiers in Physics (Sep 2020)

Generation of α-Particle Beams With a Multi-kJ, Peta-Watt Class Laser System

  • Daniele Margarone,
  • Daniele Margarone,
  • Alessio Morace,
  • Julien Bonvalet,
  • Yuki Abe,
  • Vasiliki Kantarelou,
  • Didier Raffestin,
  • Lorenzo Giuffrida,
  • Philippe Nicolai,
  • Marco Tosca,
  • Antonino Picciotto,
  • Giada Petringa,
  • Giuseppe A. P. Cirrone,
  • Yuji Fukuda,
  • Yasuhiro Kuramitsu,
  • Hideaki Habara,
  • Yasunobu Arikawa,
  • Shinsuke Fujioka,
  • Emmanuel D'Humieres,
  • Georg Korn,
  • Dimitri Batani

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2020.00343
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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We present preliminary results on generation of energetic α-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 α-particles with energies in the range 8–10 MeV and with a flux around 5 × 109 sr−1.

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