POWERFUL THERMONUCLEAR NEUTRON SOURCE BASED ON LASER EXCITATION OF HYDROTHERMAL DISSIPATION IN A VOLUME-STRUCTURED MEDIUM

An efficient method is proposed for generating thermonuclear neutrons by irradiating with a laser pulse a volume-structured material of subc ritical density, consisting of a series of thin layers of condensed ma tter separated by interlayers of low-density matter (or a vacuum gap). The plasma ions are heated up to thermonuclear temperatures much high er than the electron temperature by hydrothermal dissipation of the en ergy of the laser radiation, as a wave of thermal explosions of the la yers propagates along the laser beam axis, followed by collisions of p lasma counterflows with conversion of the kinetic energy into thermal energy of ions. Different variants of the targets and experimental con ditions are discussed in order to demonstrate the proposed method of n eutron generation. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.