Nuclear fusion of deuterons with light nuclei driven by Coulomb explosion of nanodroplets
- School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978 Tel Aviv (Israel)
Theoretical-computational studies of table-top laser-driven nuclear fusion of high energy (up to 15 MeV) deuterons with {sup 7}Li, {sup 6}Li, T, and D demonstrate the attainment of high fusion yields. The reaction design constitutes a source of Coulomb exploding deuterium nanodroplets driven by an ultraintense, near-infrared, femtosecond Gaussian laser pulse (peak intensity 2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 18}-5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 19} W cm{sup -2}) and a solid, hollow cylindrical target containing the second reagent. The exploding nanodroplets source is characterized by the deuteron kinetic energies, their number, and the laser energy absorbed by a nanodroplet. These were computed by scaled electron and ion dynamics simulations, which account for intra-nanodroplet laser intensity attenuation and relativistic effects. The fusion yields Y are determined by the number of the source deuterons and by the reaction probability. When laser intensity attenuation is weak within a single nanodroplet and throughout the nanodroplets assembly, Y exhibits a power law increase with increasing the nanodroplet size. Y is maximized for the nanodroplet size and laser intensity corresponding to the 'transition' between the weak and the strong intensity attenuation domains. The dependence of Y on the laser pulse energy W scales as W{sup 2} for weak assembly intensity attenuation, and as W for strong assembly intensity attenuation. This reaction design attains the highest table-top fusion efficiencies (up to 4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} J{sup -1} per laser pulse) obtained up to date.
- OSTI ID:
- 22068900
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 11; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
DEUTERIUM
DEUTERONS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRONS
FUSION YIELD
IONS
KINETIC ENERGY
LASER FUSION REACTORS
LASER TARGETS
LASERS
LITHIUM 6
LITHIUM 7
MEV RANGE
PROBABILITY
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SIMULATION