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Nuclear reactions triggered by laser-accelerated relativistic electron jets

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Abstract

A relativistic electron beam, generated by relativistic self-focusing of an ultra-high-intensity laser pulse in a He gas jet, was targeted onto high-Z materials for conversion to high-energy bremsstrahlung. Nuclear reactions in the primary converter materials as well as in secondary and tertiary targets placed directly behind the converter were analyzed with time-resolved γ-spectroscopy. The electron-jet temperature of more than 35 MeV, matching the giant dipole resonances of heavy nuclei, enabled us to efficiently generate photo-induced nuclear reactions. The measured temperatures are significantly higher than suggested by ponderomotive scaling. We supplemented our earlier measurement of the (γ, n) reaction cross section of 129I with a method solely based on nuclear reactions. The photo-induced transmutation yields were increased by two orders of magnitude compared to earlier experiments. Simulations with the Monte Carlo code MCNPX confirm the experimental results .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743, Jena, Germany

    B. Liesfeld, K.-U. Amthor, F. Ewald, H. Schwoerer & R. Sauerbrey

  2. Institute for Transuranium Elements, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Postfach 2340, 76125, Karlsruhe, Germany

    J. Magill, J. Galy & G. Lander

Authors
  1. B. Liesfeld
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  2. K.-U. Amthor
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  3. F. Ewald
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  4. H. Schwoerer
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  5. J. Magill
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  6. J. Galy
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  7. G. Lander
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  8. R. Sauerbrey
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Correspondence to B. Liesfeld.

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PACS

52.38.Ph; 25.20.Lj

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Liesfeld, B., Amthor, KU., Ewald, F. et al. Nuclear reactions triggered by laser-accelerated relativistic electron jets. Appl. Phys. B 79, 1047–1052 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-004-1637-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-004-1637-9

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