NUCLEAR FUSION INDUCED BY A SUPER-INTENSE ULTRASHORT LASER PULSE IN THE DEUTERATED GLASS AEROGEL
Krainov V.P., Smirnov M.B.

Поступила в редакцию: 20 Апреля 2001

PACS: 52.58.Ns, 52.50.Jm, 52.70.Nc

DJVU (78.4K)

PDF (231.2K)

A SiO₂ aerogel with absorbed deuterium is proposed as a target for the fusion reaction induced by a super-intense ultrashort laser pulse. The multiple inner ionization of oxygen and silicon atoms in the aerogel skeleton occurs in the super-intense laser field. All the forming free electrons are heated and removed from the aerogel skeleton by the laser field at the front edge of the laser pulse. The subsequent Coulomb explosion of the deuterated charged aerogel skeleton propels the deuterium ions up to kinetic energies of ten keV and higher. The neutron yield is estimated up to 10⁵ neutrons per laser pulse during -500 ps if the peak intensity is 10¹⁸ W/cm² and the pulse duration is 35 fs.