AUTHOR=Margarone Daniele , Morace Alessio , Bonvalet Julien , Abe Yuki , Kantarelou Vasiliki , Raffestin Didier , Giuffrida Lorenzo , Nicolai Philippe , Tosca Marco , Picciotto Antonino , Petringa Giada , Cirrone Giuseppe A. P. , Fukuda Yuji , Kuramitsu Yasuhiro , Habara Hideaki , Arikawa Yasunobu , Fujioka Shinsuke , D'Humieres Emmanuel , Korn Georg , Batani Dimitri TITLE=Generation of α-Particle Beams With a Multi-kJ, Peta-Watt Class Laser System JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics VOLUME=8 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2020.00343 DOI=10.3389/fphy.2020.00343 ISSN=2296-424X ABSTRACT=

We present preliminary results on generation of energetic α-particles driven by lasers. The experiment was performed at the Institute of Laser Engineering in Osaka using the short-pulse, high-intensity, high-energy, PW-class laser. The laser pulse was focused onto a thin plastic foil (pitcher) to generate a proton beam by the well-known TNSA mechanism which, in turn, was impinging onto a boron-nitride (BN) target (catcher) to generated alpha-particles as a result of proton-boron nuclear fusion events. Our results demonstrate generation of α-particles with energies in the range 8–10 MeV and with a flux around 5 × 109 sr−1.