High flux laser-Compton scattered -ray source by compressed Nd:YAG laser pulse

Daito, Izuru; Kando, Masaki; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Hayashi, Yukio; Shizuma, Toshiyuki; Hayakawa, Takehito; Hajima, Ryoichi; Ogaki, Hideaki*

A non-destructive detection system of nuclear material hidden in cargo containers is under development in JAEA and Kyoto University. The system is able to detect and identify isotopes of special nuclear material in a container by employing Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence triggered by mono-energetic laser Compton scattered -ray. One of the most important technologies for such system is generation of -rays at a flux of 310 photon/s. In order to achieve this -ray flux with a compact system, a pulse compression system for Nd:YAG laser by using stimulated brillouin scattering has been developed. The laser pulse with a duration of 10 ns from a Nd:YAG laser is compressed down to 200 ps. As a feasibility study of the proposed system 400 keV -ray generation is performed at KPSI by using 150 MeV electron beam from microtron accelerator and compressed Nd:YAG laser. Experimental results of pulse compression and -ray generation are presented.