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Spectral characterization by CVD diamond detectors of energetic protons from high-repetition rate laser for aneutronic nuclear fusion experiments

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2019-01-29
JournalJournal of Instrumentation
AuthorsM. Cipriani, F. Consoli, P. Andreoli, D. Batani, A. Bonasera
InstitutionsCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Citations12

This work describes the results of experiments performed at the femtosecond ECLIPSE laser facility at CELIA in Bordeaux. Targets constituted by aluminium foils of various thicknesses were irradiated with accelerated protons with energies in the range of interest for p+<sup>11</sup>B nuclear fusion. Plasma formed in the laser-target interaction were detected using high temperature high radiation resistant diamonds. Time-of-flight measurements were performed by using Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) monocrystalline diamonds detectors, which are specifically designed to operate in harsh environments where large ElectroMagnetic Pulses (EMPs) are generated during laser-target interaction. The 1 Hz high repetition rate used for the ECLIPSE laser allowed the collection of a large number of similar shots, giving therefore a large statistics to accurately characterize the energy spectrum of the laser-plasma accelerated protons. As a result, the laser repetitivity at a relatively small intensity permits to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the detection of the products of low cross-section reactions, such as the p+<sup>11</sup>B one, by their collection over a large number of similar shots.