Abstract
An uniformly imploded deuterated polystyrene (CD) shell target is fast-heated by a Petawatt (PW) laser without cone guide. The best illumination timing is found to be in a narrow region around 80±20 picoseconds from the onset of the stagnation phase, where thermal neutrons are enhanced four to five times by the PW laser of energy less than 10% of the implosion laser. The timing agrees with the timings of enhancement of the X-ray emission from the core and reduction of the Bremsstrahlung radiation from scattered hot electrons. The PW laser, focused to the critical density point, generates the energetic electrons within so narrow angle as 30º, which heats the imploded CD shell, of which the internal energy is 50 J, to enhance thermal neutrons. The increment of the internal energy is 15 J, which seems to agree with the energy reduction of the hot electrons. These results first show that the PW laser directly heats the imploded core without any cone-like laser guide.
