Method for diagnostics of a shell of high-aspect deuterium - tritium targets

A method for determination of the temperature T and optical thickness ρΔ (ρ is the density, Δ is the thickness) of a shell of high-aspect deuterium -tritium targets according to the portion of deuterium and tritium recoil nuclei escaping the targets after elastic collisions with a thermonuclear neutron is proposed. The spectrum of recoil nuclei contains a significant low-energy component corresponding to the peak in the elastic nD, nT scattering cross section in the small angle area. That is why the part of recoil nuclei escaping the target considerably depends on deceleration conditions in the shell determined by the ρΔ and T parameters. The given method for diagnostics is based on the use of scale invariance, depending on Coulomb particle losses on its energy E, and plasma ρ and T: dE/dx ∼ (ρ/E)f(E/AT), where A is the particle atomic weight. The corresponding diagnostic curves are plotted. Diagnostics of the model target shell by the proposed method leads to good agreement with source data