Nuclear Reaction Studies at NIF: Establishing the Method and Recent Results

Over the last 15 years many attempts have been made to harness the intense neuron yield of the National Ignition Facility for nuclear physics experiments. These efforts came to a head in 2023 with the first successful deployment of a novel doped-capsule target. Since then, several experiments have been performed to establish the validity of the method through the measurement of the well-studied 89Y(n,2n) reaction. More recently, this method has been applied to the study of poorly constrained reaction cross-sections which are difficult to pursue at traditional facilities such as NTOF.

This talk will explain the full experimental method and subsequent analysis required to use the NIF for nuclear reaction studies, and highlight some recent pre-publication results.