Liquid leaf targets show promise as high repetition rate targets for laser-based ion acceleration using the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism and are currently under development. In this work, we discuss the effects of different ion species and investigate how they can be leveraged for use as a possible laser-driven neutron source. To aid in this research, we develop a surrogate model for liquid leaf target laser-ion acceleration experiments, based on artificial neural networks. The model is trained using data from Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. The fast inference speed of our deep learning model allows us to optimize experimental parameters for maximum ion energy and laser-energy conversion efficiency. An analysis of parameter influence on our model output, using Sobol’ and PAWN indices, provides deeper insights into the laser-plasma system.

The topic of proton-boron fusion has recently attracted considerable interest in the scientific community, both for its future perspectives for energy production and for nearer-term possibilities to realize high-brightness α-particle sources. Very interesting experimental results have been obtained, in particular in laser-driven experiments but also using other experimental approaches. The goal of this special issue is to collect the most recent developments in experiments, theory, advanced targetry, diagnostics, and numerical simulation codes.

The energy problem is an open issue becoming increasingly pressing. The possibility to use nuclear fusion as an alternative energy source is thus acquiring progressively more importance and many investors are pushing to achieve the goal of an electric plant based on fusion. The most studied reaction is the deuterium-tritium one, but this poses several technical issues related to the handling of the radioactive fuel and neutron generation. In this frame, the aneutronic ¹¹B(p, α)2α fusion reaction has attracted the interest of many researchers. Despite a fusion reactor based on pB is still a long-term goal, the study of this reaction is important both for astrophysics research and for its possible employment in schemes of high brightness source of α particles for applications, as for instance in medicine. Nevertheless, the univocal identification of the produced alphas is a well-known challenging task when the reaction is triggered by high-intensity lasers. Indeed, due to the multifaceted emission typical of laser-matter interactions, the signal coming from alphas is often superimposed to that generated by protons and by other ions, and in many cases, it is therefore hardly recognizable. In this work, we analysed the possibility of employing a Thomson spectrometer (TS) with an adequate differential filtering system for the exclusion from the α-particle trace, the contribution of all other ionic species. Moreover, for the energy ranges where the filtering method cannot be successfully applied, we investigated the feasibility of integrating in the TS assembly a particle detector for time-of-flight (TOF) measurements.

Solid-state nuclear track detectors (CR-39 type) are frequently used for the detection of ions accelerated by laser-plasma interaction because they are sensitive to each single particle. To the present day, CR-39 detectors are the main diagnostics in experiments focused on laser-driven proton-boron (p¹¹B) fusion reactions to detect alpha particles, which are the main products of such a nuclear reaction, and to reconstruct their energy distribution. However, the acceleration of multispecies ions in the laser-generated plasma makes this spectroscopic method complex and often does not allow to unambiguously discriminate the alpha particles generated from p¹¹B fusion events from the laser-driven ions. In this experimental work, performed at the PALS laser facility (600 J, 300 ps, laser intensity 10¹⁶ W/cm²), CR-39 detectors were used as main detectors for the angular distribution of the produced alpha particles during a p¹¹B fusion dedicated experimental campaign. Additionally, a CR-39 detector was set inside a Thomson Parabola (TP) spectrometer with the aim to calibrate the CR-39 response for low energetic laser-driven ions originating from the plasma in the given experimental conditions. The detected ion energies were ranging from hundreds of keV to a few MeV, and the ion track diameters were measured for etching times up to 9 hours. The goal of the test was the evaluation of the detectors’ ability to discriminate the alpha particles from the aforementioned ions. Within this study, the calibration curves for protons and silicon low energy ions are accomplished, the overlapping of the proton tracks and alpha particles is verified, and a methodology to avoid this problem is realized.

A low-energy proton accelerator named pulsed synchronous linear accelerator (PSLA) is proposed and developed at the Institute of Fluid Physics, which is driven by unipolar-pulsed high voltages. Pulsed-accelerating electric fields and low-energy ion beams are precisely synchronized on temporal and spatial positions for continuous acceleration. The operating mode and the features of the PSLA are introduced. At present, the feasibility of a low-energy proton PSLA has been verified in principle. An average accelerating gradient up to 3 MV/m for protons is achieved.

The Lawson criterion for proton-boron (p-¹¹B) thermonuclear fusion is substantially higher than that for deuterium-tritium (DT) because the fusion cross section is lower and peaks at higher ion energies. The Maxwellian averaged p-¹¹B reactivity peaks at several hundred keV, where bremsstrahlung radiation emission may dominate over fusion reactions if electrons and ions are in thermal equilibrium and the losses are unrestricted. Nonequilibrium burn has often been suggested to realize the benefits of this aneutronic reaction, but the predominance of elastic scattering over fusion reactivity makes this difficult to achieve. The development of ultrashort pulse lasers (USPL) has opened new possibilities for initiating nonequilibrium thermonuclear burns and significant numbers of p-¹¹B alpha particles have been reported from several experiments. We present an analysis that shows that these significant alpha yields are the result of beam fusion reactions that do not scale to net energy gain. We further find that the yields can be explained by experimental parameters and recently updated cross sections such that a postulated avalanche mechanism is not required. We use this analysis to understand the underlying physics of USPL-driven nonequilibrium fusion reactions and whether they can be used to initiate fusion burns. We conclude by outlining a path to increasing the p-¹¹B reactivity towards the goal of achieving ignition and describing the design principles that we will use to develop a computational point design.