Development of a short pulse neutron source using the NIF-ARC laser

POSTER

Abstract

Neutron sources are used in a wide variety of applications including material science, isotope production and radiography. Short pulse laser-driven neutrons have unique characteristics such as sub-ns durations and high peak brilliance. The peak flux that is often required to probe temporally evolving environments has not yet been demonstrated for these laser-driven sources. Here, we report on the platform development of a pitcher-catcher neutron source using the large spot size, multi-kJ, multi-picosecond NIF-ARC laser. The initial experiments explored laser energy scaling at ARC conditions and catcher configuration and measured neutron yield, spectrum, and directionality.

*This work was partially performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and funded by the LLNL LDRD program under tracking code 22-ERD-022.

Presenters

  • Jackson G Williams

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • LLNL

Authors

  • Jackson G Williams

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • LLNL

  • Shaun M Kerr

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Graeme G Scott

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Kelly D Hahn

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Maurice B Aufderheide

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Joseph Bendahan

    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab

  • Blagoje Z Djordjevic

    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Clement S Goyon

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Matthew P Hill

    • AWE Plc

  • Andreas J Kemp

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Joshua Ludwig

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Tammy Ma

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Andy J Mackinnon

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab

  • Derek A Mariscal

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Matthew M McMahon

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Dean R Rusby

    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab
    • LLNL

  • Matthew P Selwood

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab / University of York

  • Dave J Schlossberg

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Raspberry A Simpson

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Franziska Treffert

    • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Scott Wilks

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL

  • Ghassan Zeraouli

    • Colorado State University