Since their discovery over 90 years ago, neutrons have become one of the premier tools in the study of the structure and dynamics of matterand materials. The main nuclear processes to generate a large number of free neutrons are fusion, fission, and spallation, which have beenwell established for using neutrons in broad areas of physics, material science, engineering, life sciences, and elsewhere. The vast majorityof experiments that use neutrons as a probe require a directional, well-collimated beam of neutrons. Over the years, methods have beendeveloped to deliver such neutron beams sufficiently, but it is still much desired to improve the efficiency of neutron sources. With theadvent of high-powered lasers, laser-driven neutron sources suggest an attractive possibility. Laser photons can be converted to neutrons byaccelerating particles (electrons, protons, and deuterons) and then either utilize hard x rays from, for example, electron acceleration to createphotoneutrons or nuclear reactions, such as deuteron break-up. The maturity of such processes in recent years might have reached a statewhere such neutron sources are becoming useful and beneficial to the neutron community. In the present report, the current state-of-theartof a laser-driven neutron source and its future development for neutron applications are presented, and existing sources are described.The basic physical principles of laser-driven neutron production and the current state-of-the-art of production techniques are outlined. Thepotential developments and the role of such sources in the landscape of neutron sources in the future are critically commented on.
Gutberlet et al. (Thu,) studied this question.