Design and commissioning of a neutron counter adapted to high-intensity laser matter interactions.

The advent of multi-PW laser facilities world-wide opens new opportunities for nuclear physics. With this perspective, we developed a neutron counter taking into account the specifics of a high-intensity laser environment. Using GEANT4 simulations and prototype testings, we report on the design of a modular neutron counter based on boron-10 enriched scintillators and a high-density polyethylene moderator.

Guiding of relativistic electron beams in dense matter by laser-driven magnetostatic fields.

Intense lasers interacting with dense targets accelerate relativistic electron beams, which transport part of the laser energy into the target depth. However, the overall laser-to-target energy coupling efficiency is impaired by the large divergence of the electron beam, intrinsic to the laser-plasma interaction. Here we demonstrate that an efficient guiding of MeV electrons with about 30 MA current in solid matter is obtained by imposing a laser-driven longitudinal magnetostatic field of 600 T.

Monochromatic short pulse laser produced ion beam using a compact passive magnetic device.

High-intensity laser accelerated protons and ions are emerging sources with complementary characteristics to those of conventional sources, namely high charge, high current, and short bunch duration, and therefore can be useful for dedicated applications. However, these beams exhibit a broadband energy spectrum when, for some experiments, monoenergetic beams are required. We present here an adaptation of conventional chicane devices in a compact form (10 cm × 20 cm) which enables selection of a specific energy interval from the broadband spectrum.