On the possibility of neutron pumping of Penning plasma lasers using a plasma focus device

We bring arguments in favour of the existing and coming high density short lived plasma devices (plasma focus, dense Z-pinch, etc.) as potential tools for the study and optimization at reasonable cost of the volumetric neutron pumping of plasma lasers. When high pressure hydrogen and helium is used as buffer gas and the neutron flux is high enough, the recoil nuclei following fast neutron elastic scattering may contribute significantly to the primary excitation of the gas mixture. (Author)