Laser-confined fusion

An approach for producing a large quantity of neutrons is proposed. It involves compression of a fuel foil and confinement of the resulting plasma between two intense laser pulses. It is shown that two circularly polarized laser pulses of amplitude a=7 illuminating a deuterium-tritium foil of areal density 3.3 X 10(18) cm(-2) can produce about 4.2 X 10(6) neutrons per joule of the input laser energy.

Neutron source from thin foil confined by two laser pulses

Neutron production from a thin deuterium-tritium (D-T) foil irradiated by two intense femtosecond laser pulses from opposite sides with zero phase difference is studied analytically and numerically. For the interaction of a laser pulse of amplitude a = 7, focal area 100 mu m(2) and areal density 4.4 x 10(18) cm(-2) with a D-T plasma foil, about 1.17 x 10(21) neutron s(-1) can be obtained, much more than from other methods. The profiles of the ion and electron densities are also calculated.