Session Index

Proton-boron fusion is an interesting nuclear reaction because the reactants are non-radioactive and abundant on earth, and the reaction produces alpha particles without emitting neutrons. However, the activation energy of proton-boron fusion is 0.6 MeV, an order of magnitude larger than deuterium-tritium fusion. This large activation energymakes proton-boron fusion impractical in a thermal environment confined by magnetic field. Although it is not difficult to accelerate protons to 0.6 MeV by conventional accelerator or laser accelerator, because of the small ratio of fusion reaction cross section to proton-electron inelastic scattering cross section, most accelerated protons lose their kinetic energy to electrons instead of activating fusion reaction. In this talk, how high-field laser could hold the promise of mitigating these problems is discussed. The extremely large ponderomotive force and optical pressure of high-field laser not only can be utilized to accelerate protons, but also to expel electrons away from the path of laser beam and protons synchronously. Laser induced strong magnetic field may also be critical to confining the protons along the laser path against Rutherford scattering. Implementation of these ideas will meet great technical challenges which may be overcome by future development of high-field laser technology.

  Preview abstract