Nuclear Activation Using Electron Bunches from Laser Plasmas

4 Nuclear Activation Using Electron Bunches from Laser Plasmas 

Laser-plasma accelerators represent a unique tool for investigating matter properties at a reduced laboratory scale, compared to large-scale facilities. Nowadays, efficient electron acceleration can be provided by such table-top accelerators and can be used to perform experiments in a variety of fields. 

Nuclear science in particular obtains from laser-driven electron sources a brand new input to perform interesting measurements in the context of many laboratories equipped with ultrashort powerful lasers. The ultrashort duration of these particle bunches represent a further attractive feature for these kinds of studies. In the following, we will focus on nuclear reaction induced by gamma radiation produced by bremsstrahlung of laser-produced electrons in suitable radiator targets. This way is usually mentioned as photo-activation and is particularly efficient for photons of energy close to the Giant Dipole Resonance of many nuclei. 

---