A new publication by Tchórz P., Chodukowski T., Rosiński M., Borodziuk S., Szymański M., Dudžák R., Singh S., Krupka M., Burian T., Marchenko A., Kustosz M., Agarwal S. in the Phys. Plasma, 31, (2024) 084503.

Proton beams generated via thermonuclear deuterium–deuterium fusion by means of modified cavity pressure acceleration-type targets as a candidate for proton–boron fusion driver 

P. Tchorz,^1,a) T. Chodukowski,¹ M. Rosinski,¹ S. Borodziuk,¹ M. Szymanski,¹ R. Dudzak, ^2,3 S. Singh,^2,3 M. Krupka,^2,3,4 T. Burian,^2,3 A. Marchenko,¹ M. Kustosz,¹ and S. Agarwal^3,5

AFFILIATIONS
1 Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, Warsaw 01 497, Poland
2 Institute of Plasma Physics AS CR, Prague 182 00, Czech Republic
3 Department of Radiation and Chemical Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Prague 182 21, Czech Republic
4 Faculty of Nuclear Science and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague 115 19, Czech Republic
5 Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague 121 16, Czech Republic

Phys. Plasmas 31, 084503 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0207108

Abstract:
In this Letter, we report the possibility of generating intense, highly energetic proton beams using terawatt, sub-nanosecond class laser system by irradiating modified cavity pressure acceleration-type targets. In this approach, the main source of few-mega electron volt protons is thermonuclear deuterium–deuterium reaction; therefore, the energy spectrum of accelerated particles and their number is not as strongly related to the laser intensity (laser pulse energy and pulse duration in particular) as in the case of the most common ion acceleration mechanism, namely, target normal sheath acceleration. Performed Monte Carlo simulations suggest that using mentioned mechanism to generate proton beam might be beneficial and efficient driver for laser induced proton–boron fusion when moderate-to-low laser pulse intensities (⁠  ⩽ 1016W/cm²⁠) and thin, lower than 100 μm boron foils are used as catchers.

Cite:  Tchórz P., Chodukowski T., Rosiński M., Borodziuk S., Szymański M., Dudžák R., Singh S., Krupka M., Burian T., Marchenko A., Kustosz M., Agarwal S. . (2024). Proton beams generated via thermonuclear deuterium–deuterium fusion by means of modified cavity pressure acceleration-type targets as a candidate for proton–boron fusion driver. Phys. Plasma, 31(8). doi: 10.1063/5.0207108