Observation of neutronless fusion reactions in picosecond laser plasmas

The yield of alpha particles in neutronless fusion reactions B-11+p in plasmas produced by picosecond laser pulses with the peak intensity of 2x10(18) W/cm(2) has been observed. Experiments were carried out on the Neodymium laser facility at the pulse energy of 10-12 J and pulse duration of 1.5 ps. The composite targets B-11+(CH2)(n) were used. The yield of 10(3) alpha particles per pulse has been observed. The energy spectrum of alpha particles contains two maxima: at 3-4 MeV and at 6-10 MeV. The first of these peaks corresponds to the secondary alpha(12) particles at the decay of the intermediate first excited state of Be-8, whereas the second peak demonstrates generation of alpha(1) particles in the reaction B-11+p with the production of this excited state. Simultaneous measurements of neutrons result in zero yield, which proves the observation of neutronless fusion reactions in our experiments.