Fusion neutrons from femtosecond relativistic laser-irradiated sub-micron aggregates in a rapid expanding jet of supercritical CO2 + CD3OD mixture

A new approach is proposed to form a jet with submicron aggregates for femtosecond laser neutron generation under nonlinear interaction with relativistically intense laser pulse. Aggregates are formed through the rapid expansion into vacuum of the supercritical mixture of CO2 + CD3OD (3:1). For the first time, fusion neutrons (2.45 MeV) with a peak output of 3 x 10(3) neutron/pulse/4 pi and efficiency of 6 x 10(4) neutron J(-1) were obtained under interaction of Ti:Sa laser pulse having 3 x 10(18) W cm(-2) intensity with submicron aggregates produced from supercritical CO2 + CD3OD mixture.