Laser-Driven Micro-Pinch: A Pathway to Ultra-Intense Neutrons

Utilizing the laser-driven Z-pinch effect, we propose an approach to generate ultra-short intense MeV neutron source of femtosecond pulse duration. The self-generated magnetic field driven by a petawatt-class laser pulse compresses deuterium in a single nanowire to over 120 time of its initial density, achieving an unprecedented particle number density of $ 10^{25} \thinspace \text{cm}^{-3}$. Through full dimensional kinetic simulations including nuclear reactions, we find these Z-pinches have the capacity to generate neutron pulses of high intensity and short duration, with a peak flux reaching $10^{27} \thinspace \text{cm}^{-2} \text{s}^{-1}$. Such laser-driven neutron sources are beyond the capability of existing approaches and paves the way for groundbreaking applications in r-process nucleosynthesis studies and high precision Time-of-Flight neutron data measurement.