At the Texas Petawatt laser facility we developed a novel ultra-short pulsed laser-driven neutron source generating an unprecedented output peak flux. Our results show a dramatic onset of high-energy electron generation from petawatt laser-irradiated plastic targets for targets thinner than a few microns. In this regime, the copious amounts of multi-MeV electrons emitted from the target are utilized to generate photo-neutrons from a metal converter. The neutrons are generated with a <50 ps pulse duration and a flux of 1018 n/cm2/s, exceeding any other pulsed or CW neutron source. In this paper, we will report on our measurement of the neutron yields produced from high atomic number converters.
We demonstrate a new all-optical method of moire fringe analysis for the purpose of fast wavefront detection and correction of single ultrashort light pulses. The magnitude and sense of wavefront curvature is determined by fringe orientation. Single-shot fringe processing takes place at the Fourier plane of an imaging lens with an apodized slit as the transmission filter. The curvature (directional 2nd derivative) of the wavefront shape is obtained as an image. Results imply the possibility of fast detection and correction of single pulses.
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