Driving of the nuclear fusion reaction p+^(11)B3α+8.7 MeV under laboratory conditions by interaction between high-power laser pulses and matter has become a popular field of research,owing to its numerous potential a...Driving of the nuclear fusion reaction p+^(11)B3α+8.7 MeV under laboratory conditions by interaction between high-power laser pulses and matter has become a popular field of research,owing to its numerous potential applications:as an alternative to deuterium-tritium for fusion energy production,astrophysics studies,and alpha-particle generation for medical treatment.One possible scheme for laser-driven p-^(11)B reactions is to direct a beam of laser-accelerated protons onto a boron(B)sample(the so-called“pitcher-catcher”scheme).This technique has been successfully implemented on large high-energy lasers,yielding hundreds of joules per shot at low repetition.We present here a complementary approach,exploiting the high repetition rate of the VEGA III petawatt laser at CLPU(Spain),aiming at accumulating results from many interactions at much lower energy,to provide better control of the parameters and the statistics of the measurements.Despite a moderate energy per pulse,our experiment allowed exploration of the laser-driven fusion process with tens(up to hundreds)of laser shots.The experiment provided a clear signature of the reactions involved and of the fusion products,accumulated over many shots,leading to an improved optimization of the diagnostics for experimental campaigns of this type.In this paper,we discuss the effectiveness of laser-driven p-11B fusion in the pitcher-catcher scheme,at a high repetition rate,addressing the challenges of this experimental scheme and highlighting its critical aspects.Our proposed methodology allows evaluation of the performance of this scheme for laser-driven alpha particle production and can be adapted to high-repetition-rate laser facilities with higher energy and intensity.展开更多
The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometer...The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometers.Protons with energies of tens of MeV can be accelerated using,for instance,target normal sheath acceleration and focused on secondary targets.Under such conditions,nuclear reactions can occur,with the production of radioisotopes suitable for medical application.The use of high-repetition lasers to produce such isotopes is competitive with conventional methods mostly based on accelerators.In this paper,we study the production of^(67)Cu,^(63)Zn,^(18)F,and^(11)C,which are currently used in positron emission tomography and other applications.At the same time,we study the reactions^(10)B(p,α)^(7)Be and^(70)Zn(p,4n)^(67)Ga to put further constraints on the proton distributions at different angles,as well as the reaction^(11)B(p,α)^(8)Be relevant for energy production.The experiment was performed at the 1 PW laser facility at VegaⅢin Salamanca,Spain.Angular distributions of radioisotopes in the forward(with respect to the laser direction)and backward directions were measured using a high purity germanium detector.Our results are in reasonable agreement with numerical estimates obtained following the approach of Kimura and Bonasera[Nucl.Instrum.Methods Phys.Res.,Sect.A 637,164–170(2011)].展开更多
Fusion energy research is delivering impressive new results emerging from different infrastructures and industrial devices evolving rapidly from ideas to proof-of-principle demonstration and aiming at the conceptual d...Fusion energy research is delivering impressive new results emerging from different infrastructures and industrial devices evolving rapidly from ideas to proof-of-principle demonstration and aiming at the conceptual design of reactors for the production of electricity.A major milestone has recently been announced in laser fusion by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is giving new thrust to laser-fusion energy research worldwide.Here we discuss how these circumstances strongly suggest the need for a European intermediate-energy facility dedicated to the physics and technology of laser-fusion ignition,the physics of fusion materials and advanced technologies for high-repetitionrate,high-average-power broadband lasers.We believe that the participation of the broader scientific community and the increased engagement of industry,in partnership with research and academic institutions,make most timely the construction of this infrastructure of extreme scientific attractiveness.展开更多
We present a scintillator-based detector able to measure the proton energy and the spatial distribution with a relatively simple design.It has been designed and built at the Spanish Center for Pulsed Lasers(CLPU)in Sa...We present a scintillator-based detector able to measure the proton energy and the spatial distribution with a relatively simple design.It has been designed and built at the Spanish Center for Pulsed Lasers(CLPU)in Salamanca and tested in the proton accelerator at the Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales(CMAM)in Madrid.The detector is capable of being set in the high repetition rate(HRR)mode and reproduces the performance of the radiochromic film detector.It represents a new class of online detectors for laser-plasma physics experiments in the newly emerging high power laser laboratories working at HRR.展开更多
Laser–plasma interaction(LPI)at intensities 1015–1016 W·cm^-2 is dominated by parametric instabilities which can be responsible for a significant amount of non-collisional absorption and generate large fluxes o...Laser–plasma interaction(LPI)at intensities 1015–1016 W·cm^-2 is dominated by parametric instabilities which can be responsible for a significant amount of non-collisional absorption and generate large fluxes of high-energy nonthermal electrons.Such a regime is of paramount importance for inertial confinement fusion(ICF)and in particular for the shock ignition scheme.In this paper we report on an experiment carried out at the Prague Asterix Laser System(PALS)facility to investigate the extent and time history of stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)and two-plasmon decay(TPD)instabilities,driven by the interaction of an infrared laser pulse at an intensity^1.2×1016 W·cm^-2 with a^100μm scalelength plasma produced from irradiation of a flat plastic target.The laser pulse duration(300 ps)and the high value of plasma temperature(~4 ke V)expected from hydrodynamic simulations make these results interesting for a deeper understanding of LPI in shock ignition conditions.Experimental results show that absolute TPD/SRS,driven at a quarter of the critical density,and convective SRS,driven at lower plasma densities,are well separated in time,with absolute instabilities driven at early times of interaction and convective backward SRS emerging at the laser peak and persisting all over the tail of the pulse.Side-scattering SRS,driven at low plasma densities,is also clearly observed.Experimental results are compared to fully kinetic large-scale,two-dimensional simulations.Particle-in-cell results,beyond reproducing the framework delineated by the experimental measurements,reveal the importance of filamentation instability in ruling the onset of SRS and stimulated Brillouin scattering instabilities and confirm the crucial role of collisionless absorption in the LPI energy balance.展开更多
The Centro de Laseres Pulsados in Salamanca,Spain has recently started operation phase and the first user access period on the 6 J 30 fs 200 TW system(VEGA 2)already started at the beginning of 2018.In this paper we r...The Centro de Laseres Pulsados in Salamanca,Spain has recently started operation phase and the first user access period on the 6 J 30 fs 200 TW system(VEGA 2)already started at the beginning of 2018.In this paper we report on two commissioning experiments recently performed on the VEGA 2 system in preparation for the user campaign.VEGA 2 system has been tested in different configurations depending on the focusing optics and targets used.One configuration(long focal length F=130 cm)is for underdense laser-matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused onto a low density gas-jet generating electron beams(via laser wake field acceleration mechanism)with maximum energy up to 500 MeV and an X-ray betatron source with a 10 keV critical energy.A second configuration(short focal length F= 40 cm)is for overdense laser-matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused onto a 5 μm thick Al target generating a proton beam with a maximum energy of 10 MeV and temperature of 2.5 MeV.In this paper we present preliminary experimental results.展开更多
基金funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Program(Grant Agreement No.101052200-EUROfusion)funding from LASERLAB-EUROPE(Grant Agreement No.871124,European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program)+5 种基金supported in part by the United States Department of Energy under Grant No.DE-FG02-93ER40773We also acknowledge support from Grant No.PID2021-125389OA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER,UEby“ERDF A Way of Making Europe”by the European Union and Unidad de Investigación Consolidada of Junta de Castilla y León UIC 167supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.12375125the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universitiesthe support of the Czech Science Foundation through Grant No.GACR24-11398S.
文摘Driving of the nuclear fusion reaction p+^(11)B3α+8.7 MeV under laboratory conditions by interaction between high-power laser pulses and matter has become a popular field of research,owing to its numerous potential applications:as an alternative to deuterium-tritium for fusion energy production,astrophysics studies,and alpha-particle generation for medical treatment.One possible scheme for laser-driven p-^(11)B reactions is to direct a beam of laser-accelerated protons onto a boron(B)sample(the so-called“pitcher-catcher”scheme).This technique has been successfully implemented on large high-energy lasers,yielding hundreds of joules per shot at low repetition.We present here a complementary approach,exploiting the high repetition rate of the VEGA III petawatt laser at CLPU(Spain),aiming at accumulating results from many interactions at much lower energy,to provide better control of the parameters and the statistics of the measurements.Despite a moderate energy per pulse,our experiment allowed exploration of the laser-driven fusion process with tens(up to hundreds)of laser shots.The experiment provided a clear signature of the reactions involved and of the fusion products,accumulated over many shots,leading to an improved optimization of the diagnostics for experimental campaigns of this type.In this paper,we discuss the effectiveness of laser-driven p-11B fusion in the pitcher-catcher scheme,at a high repetition rate,addressing the challenges of this experimental scheme and highlighting its critical aspects.Our proposed methodology allows evaluation of the performance of this scheme for laser-driven alpha particle production and can be adapted to high-repetition-rate laser facilities with higher energy and intensity.
文摘The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology,enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometers.Protons with energies of tens of MeV can be accelerated using,for instance,target normal sheath acceleration and focused on secondary targets.Under such conditions,nuclear reactions can occur,with the production of radioisotopes suitable for medical application.The use of high-repetition lasers to produce such isotopes is competitive with conventional methods mostly based on accelerators.In this paper,we study the production of^(67)Cu,^(63)Zn,^(18)F,and^(11)C,which are currently used in positron emission tomography and other applications.At the same time,we study the reactions^(10)B(p,α)^(7)Be and^(70)Zn(p,4n)^(67)Ga to put further constraints on the proton distributions at different angles,as well as the reaction^(11)B(p,α)^(8)Be relevant for energy production.The experiment was performed at the 1 PW laser facility at VegaⅢin Salamanca,Spain.Angular distributions of radioisotopes in the forward(with respect to the laser direction)and backward directions were measured using a high purity germanium detector.Our results are in reasonable agreement with numerical estimates obtained following the approach of Kimura and Bonasera[Nucl.Instrum.Methods Phys.Res.,Sect.A 637,164–170(2011)].
文摘Fusion energy research is delivering impressive new results emerging from different infrastructures and industrial devices evolving rapidly from ideas to proof-of-principle demonstration and aiming at the conceptual design of reactors for the production of electricity.A major milestone has recently been announced in laser fusion by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is giving new thrust to laser-fusion energy research worldwide.Here we discuss how these circumstances strongly suggest the need for a European intermediate-energy facility dedicated to the physics and technology of laser-fusion ignition,the physics of fusion materials and advanced technologies for high-repetitionrate,high-average-power broadband lasers.We believe that the participation of the broader scientific community and the increased engagement of industry,in partnership with research and academic institutions,make most timely the construction of this infrastructure of extreme scientific attractiveness.
基金the FURIAM project FIS20134774-RPALMA project FIS2016-81056-R+2 种基金LaserLab Europe Ⅳ Grant No.654148Junta de Castilla y León Grant No.CLP087U16Unidad de Investigación Consolidada(UIC)167 from Junta de Castilla y León。
文摘We present a scintillator-based detector able to measure the proton energy and the spatial distribution with a relatively simple design.It has been designed and built at the Spanish Center for Pulsed Lasers(CLPU)in Salamanca and tested in the proton accelerator at the Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales(CMAM)in Madrid.The detector is capable of being set in the high repetition rate(HRR)mode and reproduces the performance of the radiochromic film detector.It represents a new class of online detectors for laser-plasma physics experiments in the newly emerging high power laser laboratories working at HRR.
基金financial support from the LASERLAB-EUROPE Access to Research Infrastructure activity within the ECs seventh Framework Programfunding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 under grant agreement No. 633053+4 种基金partially supported by the project ELITAS (ELI Tools for Advanced Simulation) CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 013/0001793HIFI (High Field Initiative, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15 003/0000449)ADONIS (Advanced research using high-intensity laser produced photons and particles, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 019/0000789)ELITAS (ELI Tools for Advanced Simulations,CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 013/0001793)financial support from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports within grants LTT17015, LM2015083, and CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 013/0001552 (EF16 013/0001552)
文摘Laser–plasma interaction(LPI)at intensities 1015–1016 W·cm^-2 is dominated by parametric instabilities which can be responsible for a significant amount of non-collisional absorption and generate large fluxes of high-energy nonthermal electrons.Such a regime is of paramount importance for inertial confinement fusion(ICF)and in particular for the shock ignition scheme.In this paper we report on an experiment carried out at the Prague Asterix Laser System(PALS)facility to investigate the extent and time history of stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)and two-plasmon decay(TPD)instabilities,driven by the interaction of an infrared laser pulse at an intensity^1.2×1016 W·cm^-2 with a^100μm scalelength plasma produced from irradiation of a flat plastic target.The laser pulse duration(300 ps)and the high value of plasma temperature(~4 ke V)expected from hydrodynamic simulations make these results interesting for a deeper understanding of LPI in shock ignition conditions.Experimental results show that absolute TPD/SRS,driven at a quarter of the critical density,and convective SRS,driven at lower plasma densities,are well separated in time,with absolute instabilities driven at early times of interaction and convective backward SRS emerging at the laser peak and persisting all over the tail of the pulse.Side-scattering SRS,driven at low plasma densities,is also clearly observed.Experimental results are compared to fully kinetic large-scale,two-dimensional simulations.Particle-in-cell results,beyond reproducing the framework delineated by the experimental measurements,reveal the importance of filamentation instability in ruling the onset of SRS and stimulated Brillouin scattering instabilities and confirm the crucial role of collisionless absorption in the LPI energy balance.
基金Support from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades through the PALMA Grant No. FIS2016-81056-RICTS Equipment Grant No. EQC2018005230-P+1 种基金from LaserLab Europe IV Grant No. 654148from Junta de Castilla y Leon Grant No. CLP087U16
文摘The Centro de Laseres Pulsados in Salamanca,Spain has recently started operation phase and the first user access period on the 6 J 30 fs 200 TW system(VEGA 2)already started at the beginning of 2018.In this paper we report on two commissioning experiments recently performed on the VEGA 2 system in preparation for the user campaign.VEGA 2 system has been tested in different configurations depending on the focusing optics and targets used.One configuration(long focal length F=130 cm)is for underdense laser-matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused onto a low density gas-jet generating electron beams(via laser wake field acceleration mechanism)with maximum energy up to 500 MeV and an X-ray betatron source with a 10 keV critical energy.A second configuration(short focal length F= 40 cm)is for overdense laser-matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused onto a 5 μm thick Al target generating a proton beam with a maximum energy of 10 MeV and temperature of 2.5 MeV.In this paper we present preliminary experimental results.
