Experiments on the observation of neutron emission at a focus of high-power laser radiation on a lithium deuteride surface

Theoretical calculations indicate that laser radiation may be used to heat a deuterium plasma to temperatures at which thermonuclear neutron emission may be observed. Using a neodymium glass laser, producing a 20-joule pulse of approximately 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-11</sup> -second pulse length, preliminary evidence of neutron emission has been obtained.