Laser-Wakefield-Driven Photonuclear and Laser-Driven DD Fusion Neutron Sources for Fast Neutron Capture: A Start-to-End Simulation Study

Abstract

Laser-driven neutron sources offer ultrashort pulse durations and extreme peak fluxes inaccessible to conventional facilities, enabling novel time-of-flight(TOF) spectroscopy and nuclear astrophysics measurements. We present the first complete start-to-end simulation comparison of deuterium-deuterium (DD) bulk fusion and laser wakefield acceleration-driven photonuclear neutron sources, evaluated for fast neutron capture relevant to the r-process. The simulation chain couples particle-in-cell modeling of the laser-plasma interaction, Geant4 Monte Carlo neutron transport with shielding and background characterization, and a NON-SMOKER-based event generator for multi-neutron capture on Au197 and Rh103. We derive scaling laws for neutron yield, pulse duration, and peak flux from 1J terawatt to 250J petawatt-class systems, including DD bulk fusion scaling laws specific to the short-pulse regime where volumetric ion heating via plasma expansion timescales governs yield. Under realistic experimental conditions, DD fusion produces quasi-monoenergetic 2.45MeV neutrons with less than 20ps pulses, 100 micro source size, and peak fluxes exceeding 10^22 cm^(-2) s^(-1), ideal for high-resolution TOF spectroscopy. LWFA sources generate broader spectra with larger than 50ps pulses, but high repetition rates (up to 100 Hz) yield a 36x advantage in cumulative capture events for short-lived isomers. We conclude these sources are complementary: DD fusion maximizes per-shot peak brightness, while LWFA provides high-throughput accumulation for systematic studies. These results establish design criteria for the first direct laser-driven rapid neutron capture experiments at facilities including PHELIX, ELI-NP, and TW-class systems such as UT3.