Abstract

Proposals to induct; nuclear reactions by intense lasers have a long history. So far, however, the expected output of “nuclear radiation’’ (positrons, gamma-photons, neutrons, and fission ¡ragmen is) was exceedingly small, even for the laser intensity still out of reach; moreover, efficient production of nuclear radiation was usually not the main subject of those proposals. In this paper we attempt to answer a new question: Are available laser intensities sufficient for producing useful amount of nuclear radiation? Our answer is a definite yes¹: Using, as wc propose, a specially arranged cascade of processes initiated by an intense laser, one could arrive at a practical source of ultrashort-pulse, high-flux nuclear radiation with possible applications in material science, medicine, and nuclear engineering.

© 1997 Optical Society of America