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Modeling of High-Energy Particles and Radiation Production for Multipetawatt Laser Facilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

D. Raffestin*
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France
D. Batani
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France
J. Caron
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France Institut Bergonié: Centre Régional de Lutte Contre le Cancer de Bordeaux et du Sud-Ouest, Bordeaux, France
J. Baggio
Affiliation:
CEA, DAM, CESTA, Le Barp, France
G. Boutoux
Affiliation:
CEA, DAM, DIF, Arpajon, France
Ph. Nicolaï
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France
J.-L. Feugeas
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France
V. T. Tikhonchuk
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France
E. d’Humières
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, UMR 5107, 33405 Talence, France
*
Correspondence should be addressed to D. Raffestin; didier.raffestin@u-bordeaux.fr

Abstract

The advent of high-energy short-pulse laser beams poses new problems related to radiation protection. The radiation generated in experiments using multipetawatt laser systems leads to prompt doses and potentially to the activation of the materials within the interaction chamber and the experimental hall. Despite many new PW laser facilities are nowadays entering into operation, this question has received little attention until now. In this paper, we evaluate the radiological effects induced by the operation of a high-power laser facility. Two working regimes are considered related to the production of hard X-rays and energetic protons. The methodology is general and may be applied for the design of experiments with any high-power laser systems.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 D. Raffestin et al.
Figure 0

Figure 1: Typical targets used in the simulations of the photon (TS1) and proton (TS2) sources.

Figure 1

Figure 2: Scheme of calculations for the determination of the prompt dose and activation.

Figure 2

Figure 3: (a) PICLS simulation setup. (b) Simulation setup for the Monte Carlo simulations.

Figure 3

Figure 4: Spatial profile of the focal spot.

Figure 4

Figure 5: (a) Energy and (b) angular distributions of electrons generated in the focal spot simulated by the code PICLS for a total laser energy of 1 (red) and 3.5 kJ (blue).

Figure 5

Table 1: Characteristics of accelerated electrons.

Figure 6

Figure 6: (a) Energy and (b) angular distributions of the protons simulated by the code PICLS for a total laser energy of 3.5 kJ.

Figure 7

Table 2: Characteristics of accelerated protons.

Figure 8

Figure 7: Variation in the maximum proton energy (a) and the total proton energy (b) as a function of total incident laser energy.

Figure 9

Figure 8: Comparison of electron (a) and proton (b) energy spectra for a focal spot of 30 μm and a focal spot of 50 μm for the same laser energy of 200 J and a pulse duration of 0.5 ps.

Figure 10

Figure 9: Comparison of electron (a) and proton (b) energy spectra for the pulse durations of 0.5 and 1 ps for 1 kJ laser energy.

Figure 11

Figure 10: Energy spectra of photon emission from the rear side of the target for a laser energy of 200 J. We performed normalized simulations for 4 partial incident electron energy bins (colored curves), and then we summed them to obtain the full-photon spectrum at the keV scale (black curve).

Figure 12

Figure 11: Energy spectra of photon emission from (a) the rear (transmitted photons) and (b) front side (reflected photons) of the target for laser energies of 200, 500, 1000, and 3500 J.

Figure 13

Figure 12: Angular distribution of transmitted and backscattered photons for a laser energy of 3500 J.

Figure 14

Table 3: Summary of the backscattered electrons and transmitted high-energy bremsstrahlung photon characteristics for various laser energies.

Figure 15

Figure 13: Dependence on hot electron temperature of (a) the electron/photon conversion ratio Rγ in the tungsten target, (b) the temperature of high-energy photons Tγ (E > 1 MeV) transmitted through the tungsten target, and (c) their maximum energy Emax−γ.

Figure 16

Figure 14: Calculation sequence MCNPX + FISPACT (EASY II) used to determine the radiological inventory.

Figure 17

Figure 15: Polar graphs showing the prompt doses released following a 3.5 kJ shot on (a) a TS1 target maximizing X-ray bremsstrahlung emission (left: doses directly induced by photons; right: doses induced by photoinduced neutrons); (b) a TS2 target maximizing proton emission (left: doses directly induced by protons; right: doses induced by proton-induced neutrons). The arrow represents the direction of the laser beam (incident normally to the target surface). The inner circle represents a 5 m radius interaction chamber, while the most external circle represents the size of the whole experimental hall. The various features visible in this figure represent diagnostics and target inserters. These just represent a simple “case study” and do not necessarily refer to a concrete configuration of the interaction chamber and experimental hall during a real experiment.

Figure 18

Table 4: Activation of TS1 and TS2 target and holder.