A study of thermonuclear particles emitted from laser compressed deuterium-tritium fusion targets

In the study of laser driven deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactions CR-39 has become an established detector. In this paper we will review our own work at the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, U.K. These studies fall into two categories (i) measurement of the number and energy spectrum of thermonuclear products and knock-on ions which escape the target. This measurement is used to determine the degree of target compression and (ii) a study of the stopping power to α-particles and protons of hot dense matter of temperatures approx. 100 eV. (author)