Temporal Narrowing of Neutrons Produced by High-Intensity Short-Pulse Lasers.
The production of neutron beams having short temporal duration is studied using ultraintense laser pulses. Laser-accelerated protons are spectrally filtered using a laser-triggered microlens to produce a short duration neutron pulse via nuclear reactions induced in a converter material (LiF). This produces a ∼3  ns duration neutron pulse with 10(4)  n/MeV/sr/shot at 0.56 m from the laser-irradiated proton source. The large spatial separation between the neutron production and the proton source allows for shielding from the copious and undesirable radiation resulting from the laser-plasma interaction. This neutron pulse compares favorably to the duration of conventional accelerator sources and should scale up with, present and future, higher energy laser facilities to produce brighter and shorter neutron beams for ultrafast probing of dense materials.
Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605 CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique-Université Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France.|Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
D P
DP
Higginson
Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605 CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique-Université Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France.|Dipartimento SBAI, Università di Roma "La Sapienza,"Via Scarpa 14-16, 00161 Roma, Italy.
L
L
Vassura
IFIN-HH, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, P.O. Box MG-6, Romania.
M M
MM
Gugiu
Dipartimento SBAI, Università di Roma "La Sapienza,"Via Scarpa 14-16, 00161 Roma, Italy.|INRS-EMT, Varennes, Québec J3X 1S2, Canada.|Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Via E. Fermi, 40-00044 Frascati, Italy.
P
P
Antici
School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom.|Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines project, Na Slovance 2, 18221 Prague, Czech Republic.
M
M
Borghesi
Institut für Laser und Plasmaphysik, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
S
S
Brauckmann
Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605 CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique-Université Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
C
C
Diouf
School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom.
A
A
Green
Dipartimento SBAI, Università di Roma "La Sapienza,"Via Scarpa 14-16, 00161 Roma, Italy.
L
L
Palumbo
IFIN-HH, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, P.O. Box MG-6, Romania.
H
H
Petrascu
Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605 CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique-Université Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
S
S
Sofia
Institute of Applied Physics, 46 Ulyanov Street, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
M
M
Stardubtsev
Institut für Laser und Plasmaphysik, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
O
O
Willi
School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom.
S
S
Kar
IFIN-HH, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, P.O. Box MG-6, Romania.
F
F
Negoita
Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605 CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique-Université Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France.|Institute of Applied Physics, 46 Ulyanov Street, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
J
J
Fuchs