A new research project on laser-driven neutron sources (LDNS) has been stared in Japan aiming at practical applications of them to industry. The scheme we have chosen is such that energetic electrons and ions are accelerated in a thin foil irradiated with ahigh intensity laser pulse, and they impinge on a neutron converter, generating a wide spectral range (100 eV ~ a few MeV) of neutrons from a sub-mm-scale region with a ps-time-scale. We are carrying out afundamental research on how to improve generation efficiency and emittance. A new type of time-gated neutron imager is also under development to record neutron radiograph of a largely extent object with MeV neutrons from LDNS.

 

Professor and Vice-director of the Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE), Osaka University. PhD of Engineering (1982, Osaka U). Major researches are laser plasma physics, laser fusion, plasma spectroscopy, x-ray imaging, and quantum beam generation and applications. More than 327 papers have been published in world major journals and letters with averaged citation-number of 12.7. He has made efforts, together with his colleagues and the group of Profs. Jie Zhang, Yutong Li and Zhe Zhang of IOP, to explore China-Japan collaboration since 1990’s.