Nuclear Astrophysics and Applications using lasers.

In this talk I will discuss experiments performed at the PW laser facilities at Vega3 located in Salamanca-Spain, ELI-beamlines in Prague, SGII-Shanghai, the PW laser at the University of Texas in Austin and the ABC-ENEA laser in Frascati. First, I will show how we can measure fusion cross sections and temperatures (@UT) in plasmas at ‘air’ densities and temperatures of tens of KeV (CD2+3He targets). Using many lasers (@SGII) we can compress the targets to much higher densities than solid but very low temperatures (<1KeV). Energetic ions maybe produced using short pulse lasers with the so-called Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA). To understand and better control the TNSA method we have performed experiments at Vega3 and ELI-beamlines using a PW laser for p+¹¹B fusion reactions (third generation fusion power plant). We show that highly non equilibrated and non-neutral plasmas are responsible for the acceleration of ions to tens of MeV which may be directed on a target. These energetic ions can also be used for other applications such as radioisotope production for medicine or other purposes. Measuring the yield of produced ions give an insight to the plasma time evolution and its deviation from neutrality (Solitons?).