A route to the brightest possible neutron source?

Neutrons are a universal tool for scientists used to study everything from new medicines to the welds in the wings of aircraft, to the wonderful weirdness at the heart of quantum mechanics. An increase in power of this magnitude would transform the field, enabling scientists to do experiments way beyond anything imaginable today.

The Oxfordshire based laboratory is already home to the world-leading ISIS neutron source and Vulcan, the world’s most powerful laser.“Conventional neutron sources are based on nuclear reactors, or like at ISIS, particle accelerators, and have almost reached their technical limits”, said Professor Mike Dunne. “But, fusion energy research has unexpectedly thrown-up a radical new alternative to use powerful lasers to compress and ignite a small pellet of tritium and deuterium, two forms of hydrogen”.

Recently advances mean that fusion by this method could take 10 times less laser energy than previously thought, making it a very attractive prospect for power generation. “Most of the mega-Joules of energy released from each pellet are in the form of neutrons, making a blindingly bright neutron source”, said lead author, Dr Andrew Taylor.

There will be formidable technical challenges in making use of these neutrons for experiments. But the benefits to research would be extraordinary and provide a tool of enormous power for scientists in the UK and around the world. The simple fact that a neutron source of this power is conceivable is likely to impact on the long term prospects and planning for neutron scattering science.