Speaker
Description
Experimental data on tritium-induced nuclear reactions involving neutron-rich light nuclei such as 6He, 8Li, and 11Be remain scarce, despite their critical importance in nuclear astrophysics. These nuclei play a pivotal role in the rapid neutron capture process (r-process), acting as seed nuclei that influence nucleosynthesis pathways beyond the A=5 and A=8 mass gaps. Their relevance covers multiple astrophysical environments, including core-collapse supernovae, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, and neutron star mergers [Ter01]. Laser-ion acceleration presents a novel opportunity to generate radioactive tritium beams—capabilities currently unavailable at conventional accelerator facilities. The high-power laser systems at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (OMEGA and OMEGA-EP) enable the production of multi-MeV radioactive ion beams using compact, laser-driven targets. However, key challenges persist, including the suppression of parasitic proton acceleration from surface contaminants and the generation of monoenergetic, high-yield tritium sources. Ongoing and planned experimental campaigns are focused on optimizing laser-driven tritium beam production from target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) mechanism. These efforts aim to establish a controllable and reproducible beam platform, with insights directly informing the design and operation of future petawatt-class facilities, including the proposed NSF-OPAL laser facility [Sch22]. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy [National Nuclear Security Administration] University of Rochester “National Inertial Confinement Fusion Program” under Award Number(s) DE-NA0004144.
References:
[Ter01] M. Terasawa et al: “New nuclear reaction flow during r-process nucleosynthesis in supernovae: Critical role of light, neutron-rich nuclei’, The Astrophysical Journal, 562 (2001)
[Sch22] A. Schwemmlein et al: “First Demonstration of a Triton Beam Using Target Normal Sheath Acceleration”, Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research B 522 (2022)
