Proton-Boron Fusion Yield Increased by Orders of Magnitude with Foam Targets
/ Authors
Wenqing Wei, Shizheng Zhang, Z. Deng, W. Qi, Haochen Xu, LI-RONG Liu, Jia-Lin Zhang, Fang Li, Xing Xu, Zhongqiang Hu
and 28 more authors
Benzheng Chen, B. Ma, Jian-Xing Li, Xuemei Ren, Zhongfeng Xu, D. Hoffmann, Q. Fan, Weiwu Wang, Shaolong Wang, J. Teng, Bo Cui, F. Lu, Lei Yang, Yuqiu Gu, Zong-qing Zhao, R. Cheng, Zhao Wang, Y. Lei, G. Xiao, Hong-Wei Zhao, Bin Liu, Guangjiu Zhao, Minsheng Liu, Hua-sheng Xie, Leifeng Cao, Jieru Ren, Weimin Zhou, Yong-Tao Zhao
/ Abstract
A novel intense beam-driven scheme for high yield of the tri-alpha reaction 11B(p,{\alpha})2{\alpha} was investigated. We used a foam target made of cellulose triacetate (TAC, C_9H_{16}O_8) doped with boron. It was then heated volumetrically by soft X-ray radiation from a laser heated hohlraum and turned into a homogenous, and long living plasma. We employed a picosecond laser pulse to generate a high-intensity energetic proton beam via the well-known Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism. We observed up to 10^{10}/sr {\alpha} particles per laser shot. This constitutes presently the highest yield value normalized to the laser energy on target. The measured fusion yield per proton exceeds the classical expectation of beam-target reactions by up to four orders of magnitude under high proton intensities. This enhancement is attributed to the strong electric fields and nonequilibrium thermonuclear fusion reactions as a result of the new method. Our approach shows opportunities to pursue ignition of aneutronic fusion.