Energetic deuterons generated from an aluminum-coated deuterated polystyrene target driven by a femtosecond laser

To improve the efficiency of laser-induced deuteron generation used for neutron generation via D-D nuclear reaction, we investigated the angular dependences of deuterons and electrons with respect to the target normal and the time-of-flight (TOF) intensity distributions of particles for thick deuterated polystyrene solid-targets with and without coating a thin aluminum layer on the front surfaces of the targets. The peak deuteron energies of 90 - 213 keV, which were measured for polystyrene targets with thicknesses of 50 - 130 μm in the target's rear normal direction, were increased to 132 - 227 keV for the double-layer target with a front surface coated with 0.3-μm thickness of aluminum. These correspond to 6.9 - 45.8% improvements in the peak deuteron energy.