Jia-xing Wen, Ge Ma, Ming-hai Yu, Yu-chi Wu, Yong-hong Yan, Shao-yi Wang, Huai-zhong Gao, Lu-shan Wang, Yu-gang Zhou, Qiang Li, Yue Yang, Fang Tan, Xiao-hui Zhang, Jie Zhang, Wen-bo Mo, Jing-qin Su, Wei-min Zhou, Yu-qiu Gu, Zong-qing Zhao, Ming Zeng
The spectrum of laser-plasma-generated X-rays is very important as it can characterize electron dynamics and also be useful for applications, and nowadays with the forthcoming high-repetition-rate laser-plasma experiments, there is a raising demand for online diagnosis for the X-ray spectrum. In this paper, scintillators and silicon PIN diodes are used to build a wideband online filter stack spectrometer. The genetic algorithm is used to optimize the arrangements of the X-ray sensors and filters by minimizing the condition number of the response matrix, thus the unfolding error can be significantly decreased according to the numerical experiments. The detector responses are quantitatively calibrated by irradiating the scintillator and PIN diode using different nuclides and comparing the measured gamma-ray peaks. Finally, a 15-channel spectrometer prototype has been implemented. The X-ray detector, front-end electronics, and back-end electronics are integrated into the prototype, and the prototype can determine the spectrum with 1 kHz repetition rates.
Yue Yang, Yu-Chi Wu, Liang Li, Si-Yuan Zhang, Ke-Gong Dong, Tian-Kui Zhang, Ming-Hai Yu, Xiao-Hui Zhang, Bin Zhu, Fang Tan, Yong-Hong Yan, Gang Li, Wei Fan, Feng Lu, Zong-Qing Zhao, Wei-Min Zhou, Lei-Feng Cao, Yu-Qiu Gu
The increasingly demand for machining accuracy and product quality excites a great interest in high-resolution non-destructive testing (NDT) methods, but spatial resolution of conventional high-energy computed tomography (CT) is limited to sub-millimeter because of large X-ray spot size. Therefore, we propose a novel high-resolution high-energy CT based on laser-driven X-ray source and prove its feasibility to allow high-spatial-resolution tomographic imaging of dense objects. A numerical model is developed with a consideration of realistic factors including parameter fluctuations, statistical noise and detecting efficiency. By using modulation transfer functions, the system performance is quantitatively characterized and optimized in terms of source characteristics, detector aperture, geometrical configuration and projection parameters. As a result, the simulated tomography for a high-density object (up to 19.35g/cm3) achieves a basic spatial resolution of 64.9μm. This concept expands the prospects of laser-based compact X-ray sources and shows a great potential to achieve high-perspectivity micro-CT imaging for various industrial applications.
Bo Zhang, Zhi-meng Zhang, Zhi-gang Deng, Wei Hong, Jian Teng, Shu-kai He, Wei-min Zhou, Yu-qiu Gu
Nonlinear Compton scattering (NCS) and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler (NBW) process are strongly multi-photon and highly nonlinear processes. In ultra intense lasers (normalized field amplitude $a_0 \gg 1$), radiation formation length is much shorter than a period and single NCS/NBW cannot be described as scatterings of electrons dressing plane waves with $γ$ photons for what they feel is a local constant crossed field. However, present theories in constant crossed fields are hard to give some important quantum features due to divergence problems, such as number of laser photons involved, instantaneous angular distribution and detailed spectrum. As an alternative, present understanding of single NCS/NBW in ultra intense lasers includes several classical and semi-quantum ideas such as forward emission, recoil reaction and spectrum cutoff. We investigated multi-photon effects on NCS/NBW in ultra intense lasers by extracting the number of laser photons involved in a single process in ultra intense lasers from formulae of existing theories. New features of single NCS in ultra intense lasers including fixed emission angle to instantaneous electron momentum, instantaneous deflection of electron, and disappearance of spectrum cutoff are deduced. Similar features of single NBW in ultra intense lasers including non-vanishing emission angles to instantaneous $γ$ photon momentum, disappearance of spectrum cutoff and appearance of spectrum lower limit are also obtained. Simulations show that corresponding signals of multi-photon effects are significant on $10$PW scale and stronger lasers.
Wen-Qing Wei, Shi-Zheng Zhang, Zhi-Gang Deng, Wei Qi, Hao Xu, Li-Rong Liu, Jia-Lin Zhang, Fang-Fang Li, Xing Xu, Zhong-Min Hu, Ben-Zheng Chen, Bu-Bo Ma, Jian-Xing Li, Xue-Guang Ren, Zhong-Feng Xu, Dieter H. H. Hoffmann, Quan-Ping Fan, Wei-Wu Wang, Shao-Yi Wang, Jian Teng, Bo Cui, Feng Lu, Lei Yang, Yu-Qiu Gu, Zong-Qing Zhao, Rui Cheng, Zhao Wang, Yu Lei, Guo-Qing Xiao, Hong-Wei Zhao, Bing Liu, Guan-Chao Zhao, Min-Sheng Liu, Hua-Sheng Xie, Lei-Feng Cao, Jie-Ru Ren, Wei-Min Zhou, Yong-Tao Zhao
A novel intense beam-driven scheme for high yield of the tri-alpha reaction 11B(p,α)2α 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 α 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.