Published May 2000 | Version v1
Journal article

Nuclear fusion in gases of deuterium clusters heated with a femtosecond laser

  • 1. Laser Program, L-477 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, California 94550 (United States)

Description

Recent experiments on the interaction of intense, ultrafast pulses with large van der Waals bonded clusters have shown that these clusters can explode with substantial kinetic energy. Producing explosions in deuterium clusters with a 35 fs laser pulse, deuterium ions were accelerated to sufficient kinetic energy to drive deuterium-deuterium (DD) nuclear fusion. By diagnosing the fusion yield through measurements of 2.45 MeV fusion neutrons, over 104 neutrons per laser shot were measured when 100 mJ of laser energy is used. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physics of Plasmas
Journal Volume
7
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. 1993-1998
ISSN
1070-664X
CODEN
PHPAEN