High-repetition-rate, multi-MeV deuteron acceleration from converging heavy water microjets at laser intensities of 10(21) W/cm(2)

We demonstrate high repetition-rate deuteron acceleration by irradiating a continuously flowing, ambient temperature liquid heavy water jet with the high-intensity ALEPH laser. The laser delivered up to 5.5 J (120 TW, 1.2 x 10(21) W/cm(2)) laser energy on target at 0.5 Hz. A high repetition-rate Thomson parabola spectrometer measured the deuteron beam energy spectra on each shot for 60 sequential shots (two minutes). Peak fluxes of 5 x 10(10 )deuterons/sr/pulse, corresponding to an average flux of 1.5 x 10(12) deuterons/sr/min, were demonstrated with deuteron energies reaching up to 4.4 MeV. High shot-to-shot stability is observed up to 40%-50% of the maximum deuteron energy. These deuteron beams are suited for fast neutron production through deuteron breakup in a converter yielding energies similar to deuteron-deuteron (D-D, 2.45 MeV) fusion reactions of importance for material damage studies. (c) 2022 Author(s).