Measurement of the plasma astrophysical S factor for the $^{3}$He(d,~p)$^{4}$He reaction in exploding molecular clusters
ORAL
Abstract
The plasma astrophysical S factor for the $^{3}$He(d,~p)$^{4}$He fusion reaction was measured for the first time at temperatures of few keV, using the interaction of intense ultrafast laser pulses with molecular deuterium clusters mixed with $^{3}$He atoms. Different proportions of D$_{2}$ and $^{3}$He or CD$_{4}$ and $^{3}$He were mixed in the gas jet target in order to allow the measurement of the cross-section for the $^{3}$He(d,~p)$^{4}$He reaction. The yield of 14.7 MeV protons from the $^{3}$He(d,~p)$^{4}$He reaction was measured in order to extract the astrophysical $S$ factor at low energies. Results of the experiment performed at the Center for High Energy Density Science at The University of Texas at Austin will be presented [PRL, 111, 082502].
–