Generations of energetic deuterons and neutrons from the Coulomb explosion of deuterated ethane clusters

Abstract

The explosion dynamics of deuterated ethane clusters driven by an intense laser pulse is simulated numerically by employing a simplified Coulomb explosion model. The dependences of deuteron kinetic energy and neutron yield on cluster size are investigated respectively in the paper. It is found that the deuteron energy and neutron yield produced from 5.0 nm deuterated ethane clusters are 20.96 keV and 6.31×105 respectively, which are higher than those from 5.0 nm deuterated methane clusters. So it can be inferred that deuterated ethane clusters are superior to deuterated methane clusters as the target for the efficient laser-induced nuclear fusion reaction to achieve a higher neutron yield, which is in accordance with the reported experimental conclusion.