Nuclear fusion in gases of deuterium clusters heated with a femtosecond laser

Recent experiments on the interaction of intense, ultrafast pulses with large van der Waals bonded clusters have shown that these clusters can explode with substantial kinetic energy. Producing explosions in deuterium clusters with a 35 fs laser pulse, deuterium ions were accelerated to sufficient kinetic energy to drive deuterium–deuterium (DD) nuclear fusion. By diagnosing the fusion yield through measurements of 2.45 MeV fusion neutrons, over 104 neutrons per laser shot were measured when 100 mJ of laser energy is used.