Premium
Theory of Laser Induced Fusion in Compound Boron‐Hydrogen Microdroplets
Author(s) -
Krainov V. P.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
contributions to plasma physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0863-1042
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.200510021
Subject(s) - materials science , laser , atomic physics , plasma , electron , bremsstrahlung , yield (engineering) , ambipolar diffusion , nuclear fusion , picosecond , diffusion , inertial confinement fusion , kinetic energy , physics , optics , nuclear physics , thermodynamics , metallurgy , quantum mechanics
The yield of alpha‐particles in nuclear fusion reaction between 11B nuclei and protons in solid microdroplets induced by linearly polarized picosecond laser pulses with high laser contrast is derived analytically. The vacuum (Brunel) heating is the main mechanism for electron heating in overdense plasma. Induced inverse bremsstrahlung can be neglected in the electron heating. Nuclei acquire their kinetic energy due to ambipolar diffusion together with heated electrons at the plasma hydrodynamic expansion with the speed of the ionic sound. The yield of alpha‐particles per one microdroplet of 1 ¹ m size is » 103 for Nd:glass laser with the peak laser intensity of 2 ¢ 1018 W/cm2 and the pulse duration of 1 : 5 ps. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)