Tamper temperature and compression from simultaneous proton and alpha-particle measurements in laser fusion experiments

The energy loss per unit path length for a charged particle incident on a spatially uniform isothermal Maxwellian plasma is a function of the temperature and density of the medium. Within this model the temperature and compression ρΔr of the tamper of a laser-driven microshell target can be accurately determined, in the absence of electrostatic acceleration, by the simultaneous measurement of the energy loss from 3.52-MeV α particles from D-T reactions and 3.02-MeV protons from D-D reactions.