Detailed study of non-equilibrium characteristics of quasi-neutral TNSA plasmas
Abstract
In an experiment performed in November 2022 at the petawatt (PW) laser facility at Vega III located in Salamanca-Spain, we have studied the successful production of several radioisotopes using protons accelerated by the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism (Rodrigues et al. [1]).The experimental proton energy distribution recorded on a shot-to-shot basis and confirmed in a follow up experiment (K.Batani et al. [2]), allowed us to derive the number of nuclear reactions taking place in different targets on a single shot.From this analysis, using the ratio of the yields 11 C/ 7 Be, we obtained an effective "single shot" temperature of the TNSA plasma.We used this value to evaluate the yield of particles from the reaction p+ 11 B → 3 which may reach 1.6±0.510 9 in 2.From the fluctuations of the protons and the fusion yields, we derived a "TNSA-Equation of State" (EoS), The deviation of such "EoS" from the classical ideal gas limit is well reproduced by the soliton solution of the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation for each shot.We stress that the KdV fit is phenomenological, not a claim about the plasma satisfying KdV conditions.Further experimental and theoretical efforts are needed to clarify the nature of the deviation from the ideal case.
// Source
Authors: Zhe Zhu, A. Bonasera, D. Batani, M. R. D. Rodrigues, Katarzyna Liliana Batani, J. A. Pérez-Hernández, Michael Ehret, Evgeny Filippov, H. Larreur, Daniel Molloy, G. G. Rapisarda, D. Lattuada, G. L. Guardo, C. Verona, Ferdinanda Consoli, Giada Petringa, Aaron McNamee, M. La Cognata, S. Palmerini, Riccardo De Angelis, G.A.P. Cirrone, V. Istokskaia, R. Lera, L. Volpe, D. Giulietti, Shubham Agarwal, M. Krupka, Sushil Singh, Jun Xu
Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Queen's University Belfast, Charles University, Tongji University, Universidad de Salamanca, Université de Bordeaux, Texas A&M University, University of Pisa, National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Mitchell Institute, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, Spanish Center for Pulsed Lasers, University of Catania, Università degli Studi di Enna Kore, University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of Perugia, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic