High-Repetition-Rate Laser-Driven Fast Neutron Generation from Planar Liquid Heavy Water Jets

Abstract

We demonstrate a high-repetition-rate, directional pitcher-catcher neutron source employing a continuously flowing, ambient-temperature liquid jet pitcher and a beryllium catcher target. Proton or deuteron beams are accelerated at 0.5 Hz from water (H₂O) or heavy water (D₂O) sheet jets using the 2ω ALEPH laser at Colorado State University. Deuteron-induced neutron generation shows an average flux enhancement in the target normal direction of 13x compared to proton-induced neutron generation, achieving peak fluxes of 7.9×10⁵ neutrons/sr. The experimentally predicted ion-to-neutron conversion efficiency of 1.5× 10⁻⁵ for protons and 1.1× 10⁻³ for deuterons indicates a significant yield contribution from the deuteron breakup reaction. High shot-to-shot stability neutron spectra up to 8.7~MeV (⁹Be(d,n)¹⁰B) are observed for more than 200 consecutive shots.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{treffert2026highrepetitionrate,
  title = {{High-Repetition-Rate Laser-Driven Fast Neutron Generation from Planar Liquid Heavy Water Jets}},
  author = {F. Treffert and G. D. Glenn and C. B. Curry and D. P. DePonte and R. C. Hollinger and G. Jain and S. Popa and M. Ricks and J. J. Rocca and B. Sullivan and D. Ursescu and S. Wang and G. J. Williams and S. Zahedpour and S. H. Glenzer and M. Gauthier},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.38931},
  eprint = {2610.38931},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38931},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - High-Repetition-Rate Laser-Driven Fast Neutron Generation from Planar Liquid Heavy Water Jets
AU  - F. Treffert
AU  - G. D. Glenn
AU  - C. B. Curry
AU  - D. P. DePonte
AU  - R. C. Hollinger
AU  - G. Jain
AU  - S. Popa
AU  - M. Ricks
AU  - J. J. Rocca
AU  - B. Sullivan
AU  - D. Ursescu
AU  - S. Wang
AU  - G. J. Williams
AU  - S. Zahedpour
AU  - S. H. Glenzer
AU  - M. Gauthier
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/28
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.38931
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38931
AB  - We demonstrate a high-repetition-rate, directional pitcher-catcher neutron source employing a continuously flowing, ambient-temperature liquid jet pitcher and a beryllium catcher target. Proton or deuteron beams are accelerated at 0.5 Hz from water (H_2O) or heavy water (D_2O) sheet jets using the 2ω ALEPH laser at Colorado State University. Deuteron-induced neutron generation shows an average flux enhancement in the target normal direction of 13x compared to proton-induced neutron generation, achieving peak fluxes of 7.9×10^5 neutrons/sr. The experimentally predicted ion-to-neutron conversion efficiency of 1.5× 10^−5 for protons and 1.1× 10^−3 for deuterons indicates a significant yield contribution from the deuteron breakup reaction. High shot-to-shot stability neutron spectra up to 8.7~MeV (^9Be(d,n)^10B) are observed for more than 200 consecutive shots.
ER  -

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