Speaker
Description
The evolution of laser and accelerator technologies has taken a new turn, giving rise to a new transdisciplinary field: Nuclear Photonics. Advances in high-intensity laser technologies have made it possible to accelerate electrons in the GeV class and protons close to 100 MeV from a distance of less than 1 mm. In particular, secondary beams such as laser-driven neutron sources (LDNS) are attracting much interest as a promising application of laser particle acceleration.
LDNS is attracting interest for several reasons, including (i) compactness of the source, (ii) short neutron pulses, and (iii) transportability of the laser beam. By reviewing recent activities at ILE, Osaka University, we discuss the characteristics of LDNS in comparison with accelerator-based neutron facilities. In particular, we discuss the potential and limitations of LDNS by showing that neutrons ranging from meV to MeV [1-10] in energy have been produced by LDNS and applied to neutron radiography [2,6,8], neutron spectroscopy [9,10], astrophysics [3,4], and medical science [7].
[1] S. R. Mirfayzi, A. Yogo, Z. Lan et al. Proof-of-Principle Experiment for Laser-Driven Cold Neutron Source, Scientific Reports 10, 20157 (2020).
[2] A. Yogo, S. R. Mirfayzi, Y. Arikawa, et al. Single Shot Radiography by a Bright Source of Laser-Driven Thermal Neutrons and X-rays, Appl. Phys. Express 14, 106001 (2021).
[3] T. Mori, A. Yogo, T. Hayakawa et al. Direct Evaluation of High Neutron Density Environment Using (n, 2n) Reaction Induced by Laser-Driven Neutron Source, Phys. Rev. C 104, 015808 (2021).
[4] T. Mori, A. Yogo, T. Hayakawa et al. Thermal neutron fluence measurement using a cadmium differential method at the laser-driven neutron source, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 49 065103 (2022).
[5] Z. Lan and A. Yogo Exploring nuclear photonics with a laser driven neutron source, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 64 024001 (2022).
[6] T. Wei, A. Yogo, T. Hayakawa et al. Non-destructive inspection of water or high-pressure hydrogen gas in metal pipes by the flash of neutrons and x rays generated by laser, AIP Advances 12, 045220 (2022);
[7] T. Mori, A. Yogo, Y. Arikawa et al. Feasibility study of laser-driven neutron sources for pharmaceutical applications, High Power Laser Sci. Eng., 11, e20 (2023).
[8] Y. Arikawa, A. Morace, Y. Abe et al. Demonstration of efficient relativistic electron acceleration by surface plasmonics with sequential target processing using high repetition lasers, Phys. Rev. Research 5 013062 (2023).
[9] A. Yogo, Z. Lan, Y. Arikawa et al. Laser-Driven Neutron Generation Realizing Single-Shot Resonance Spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. X 13 011011 (2023).
[10] Z. Lan, Y. Arikawa, T. Hayakawa, A. Yogo et al. Single-Shot Laser-Driven Neutron Resonance Spectroscopy for Temperature Profiling, accepted for publication in Nature Communications.