Experimental Test of the Polarization Persistence in Inertial Confinement Fusion

Abstract

The complete deuteron and triton polarization in the DT fusion increases the reactivity by 50%. For Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), due to the dynamics of the fusion reaction process, the fusion rate could even be further increased. It has been argued that the polarization would survive as well in magnetic as in inertial confinements. Recently, we have proposed an experiment to test the persistence of the polarization in a fusion process, using a powerful laser hitting a polarized HD target.The polarized deuterons heated in the plasma induced by the laser can fuse. The corresponding reaction is: D + D → 3He + n. The angular distribution of the emitted neutrons and the change in the corresponding total cross section are signatures to estimate the polarization persistency. A proposal to test the persistence of the polarization in ICF has been accepted at ILE: the POLAF project (POlarization in LAser Fusion Process). It uses the polarized HD targets produced at RCNP and the powerful ILE lasers, as well as the neutron detectors existing there. Both institutions are on the same campus at Osaka University. The description of the POLAF experiment and of the corresponding set-up is given.