High-repetition-rate, multi-MeV deuteron acceleration from converging heavy water microjets at laser intensities of 10²¹ W/cm²

Herein we demonstrate high repetition-rate deuteron acceleration by irradiating a continuously flowing, ambient temperature liquid heavy water jet with the high-intensity ALEPH laser. The laser delivered up to 5.5 J (120 TW, 1.2 × 10²¹ W/cm²) laser energy on target at 0.5 Hz. A high repetition-rate Thomson parabola spectrometer measured the deuteron beam energy spectra on each shot for 60 sequential shots (two minutes). Peak fluxes of 5 x 10¹⁰ deuterons/sr/pulse, corresponding to an average flux of 1.5 x 10¹² deuterons/sr/min, were demonstrated with deuteron energies reaching up to 4.4 MeV. High shot-to-shot stability is observed up to 40%–50% of the maximum deuteron energy. These deuteron beams are suited for fast neutron production through deuteron breakup in a converter yielding energies similar to deuteron–deuteron (D–D, 2.45 MeV) fusion reactions of importance for material damage studies.. Authors: Treffert, Franziska [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Technische Univ. Darmstadt (Germany); SLAC] (ORCID:0000000312774241); Curry, Chandra B. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (Canada)] (ORCID:000000018756181X); Chou, Hsuan-Gu J. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000348130798); Crissman, Christopher J. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); United States Military Academy, West Point, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000187484359); DePonte, Daniel P. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000304047511). DOE Contract: AC02-76SF00515; NA0003960; SC0021246. Subjects: 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Deuterium; high energy density physics; ion source; lasers; neutron sources; particle acceleration