摘要
Neutron production driven by intense lasers utilizing inverse kinematic reactions is explored self-consistently by a combination of particle-in-cell simulations for laser-driven ion acceleration and Monte Carlo nuclear reaction simulations for neutron production.It is proposed that laser-driven light-sail acceleration from ultrathin lithium foils can provide an energetic lithium-ion beam as the projectile bombarding a light hydrocarbon target with sufficiently high flux for the inverse p(^(7)Li,n)reaction to be efficiently achieved.Three-dimensional self-consistent simulations show that a forward-directed pulsed neutron source with ultrashort pulse duration 3 ns,small divergence angle 260,and extremely high peak flux 3×10~14n/(cm^(2)·s)can be produced by petawatt lasers at intensities of 10^(21)W/cm^(2).These results indicate that a laser-driven neutron source based on inverse kinematics has promise as a novel compact pulsed neutron generator for practical applications,since the it can operate in a safe and repetitive way with almost no undesirable radiation.
基金
supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant Nos.2022YFA1603200 and 2022YFA1603201)
the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12135001,11825502,and 11921006)
the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS(Grant No.XDA25050900)
the National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars(Grant No.11825502)。
