Generating a TNSA Tritium Beam

In a novel experiment, a tritium beam was generated via the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) mechanism using tritiated titanium targets. Commercial 25-$\mu $m-thick Ti foil was cut into 500 \texttimes 500-$\mu $m$^{\mathrm{2}}$ squares and exposed for 2 h to \textasciitilde 1 atm. of 99.97{\%} pure tritium gas at 200\textdegree C. These targets were irradiated with an on-target intensity of 2 \texttimes 10$^{\mathrm{18}}$ W/cm$^{\mathrm{2\thinspace }}$with the high-energy (1250-kJ), short-pulse (10-ps) OMEGA EP laser. Using a Thomson parabola velocity analyzer, the energy spectrum of the beam was found to exponentially decrease with a high-energy cutoff at \textasciitilde 10 MeV. The total beam yield was determined to be \textasciitilde 10$^{\mathrm{12}}$ tritons per pulse, comparable to other TNSA experiments with protons. In a second experiment, the tritium beam was directed onto a secondary deuterated-polyethylene target, which produced 10$^{\mathrm{8}}$ neutrons from DT fusion nuclear reactions. Future applications of the tritium beam will be discussed. This work was supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0003856.