Assessing the potential of upcoming laser-driven neutron sources and their practical applications for industry and society

Marc Zimmer; Thomas F. Rösch; Stefan Scheuren; Thomas Seupel; Tim Jäger; Jonas Kohl; Daniel Hofmann; Gabriel Schaumann; Markus Roth

doi:10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05879-5

2024 Impact factor 2.9

EPJ PLUS - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems

Focus Point on Laser Driven Neutron Sources and their Applications

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2024) 139: 1107
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05879-5

Regular Article

Assessing the potential of upcoming laser-driven neutron sources and their practical applications for industry and society

Marc Zimmer¹^a, Thomas F. Rösch¹, Stefan Scheuren², Thomas Seupel², Tim Jäger², Jonas Kohl², Daniel Hofmann², Gabriel Schaumann¹^,2 and Markus Roth¹^,2

¹ Focused Energy GmbH, Im Tiefen See 45, 64293, Darmstadt, Germany
² Institute for Nuclear Physics, TU Darmstadt, Schlossgartenstraße 9, 64295, Darmstadt, Germany

^a marc.zimmer@focused-energy.world

Received: 27 July 2024
Accepted: 9 November 2024
Published online: 18 December 2024

Abstract

Laser-driven neutron sources (LDNS) are an emerging technology with significant potential. The most promising types of LDNS are based on laser wakefield acceleration or target normal sheath acceleration, driven in a “pitcher-catcher” configuration. In this publication, we estimate the performance of LDNS once they have been optimized for industrial-scale usage and identify for which applications they can be used. For this purpose, we evaluate the current laser developments and identify the three most promising laser systems that can be used to cover the most relevant applications. A scaling system is then derived to predict the neutron production rate for each of the three systems. The first system is expected to produce $8 \times 10^{8} n s^{- 1}$ $8 \times 10^{8}\,\hbox {n}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}$ to $8 \times 10^{9} n s^{- 1}$ $8 \times 10^{9}\,\hbox {n}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}$ for thermalized neutrons. The second one $1 \times 10^{11} n s^{- 1}$ ${1 \times 10^{11}}\,\hbox {n}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}$ for fast neutrons and the third one $1 \times 10^{14} n s^{- 1}$ $1 \times 10^{14}\,\hbox {n}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}$ to $1 \times 10^{15} n s^{- 1}$ $1 \times 10^{15}\,\hbox {n}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}$ fast neutrons. This is followed by an evaluation of possible applications that can be driven with each of the different LDNS system. We conclude with a comparison of the scaling law and the neutron production rate to existing experimental data and scaling laws from other groups to evaluate the accuracy of the model and the estimates for the different applications.

© The Author(s) 2024

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.