2023/12/21 by D. P. Higginson, Higginson, D. P., Ronan Lelièvre +37
Physics and Astronomy · #Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Planetary Science and Exploration #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2312.14110
openalex publication_date 2023/12/21 · openalex created_date 2024/06/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Laser-driven neutron sources are routinely produced by the interaction of laser-accelerated protons with a converter. They present complementary characteristics to those of conventional accelerator-based neutron sources (e.g. short pulse durations, enabling novel applications like radiography). We present here results from an experiment aimed at performing a global characterization of the neutrons produced using the Titan laser at the Jupiter Laser Facility (Livermore, USA), where protons were accelerated from 23 μm thick plastic targets and directed onto a LiF converter to produce neutrons. For this purpose, several diagnostics were used to measure these neutron emissions, such as CR-39, activation foils, Time-of-Flight detectors and direct measurement of 7Be residual activity in the LiF converters. The use of these different, independently operating diagnostics enables comparison of the various measurements performed to provide a robust characterization. These measurements led to a neutron yield of 2.109 neutrons per shot with a modest angular dependence, close to that simulated.