Secondary nuclear fusion reactions as evidence of electron degeneracy in highly compressed fusion fuel

Abstract

Recent direct-drive implosion experiments on the GEKKO XII laser with plastic hollow shell targets demonstrated compressed densities of ∼600 g/cm3 (∼600 times liquid density) at a temperature of ∼0.3 keV. The highly compressed core plasmas are indicated to be strongly coupled (average Coulomb energy/thermal energy ≈5) and partially degenerate (thermal energy/Fermi energy ≈0.3). The diagnostic method based on the secondary nuclear fusion reactions is presented to prove the electron degeneracy in the highly compressed core plasma. The yield ratio of the secondary DT neutrons to the primary DD neutrons in such highly compressed core plasmas was calculated with inclusion of the strong Coulomb-coupling effects, the varied degrees of the electron degeneracy, and the electronic shielding effects. It was found in our calculations that there is a significant dependence of the yield ratio on the compressed core density. For the plastic targets at the electron temperature of ∼0.3 keV, the yield ratio increases from 9 × 10−4 to 8 × 10−3 for densities from 10 to 1000 g/cm3. The preliminary experiments using deuterated plastic hollow shell targets suggested that the enhancement of the yield ratio provided evidence of the electron degeneracy.