Kinetic Modeling of Laser-Induced D-T Fusion

A computational- simulation study was performed to assess the feasibility of laser-induced fusion of deuterium nuclei with tritium nuclei as a means of generating neutrons for use in neutron radiography. [D-T fusion reactions produce α particles (He nuclei) plus the desired neutrons.] As in prior studies of laser-induced D-T fusion, the basic idea is to irradiate a small deuterium-and- tritium-containing target with a brief, intense laser pulse that causes a shock wave to propagate into the target. The shock wave ionizes and accelerates a substantial portion of the D and/or T molecules, resulting in, among other phenomena, collisions between D and T nuclei. The question of feasibility is essentially the question of whether, by use of a realistic target and a realistic laser pulse, a sufficient number of ions could be accelerated to sufficient kinetic energy such that the number of resulting D-T fusion reactions would suffice to produce a radiographically usefully large number of neutrons.