Laser-driven neutron sources are routinely produced by the interaction of laser-accelerated protons with a converter. They present complementary characteristics to those of conventional accelerator-based neutron sources (e.g. short pulse durations, enabling novel applications like radiography). We present here results from an experiment aimed at performing a global characterization of the neutrons produced using the Titan laser at the Jupiter Laser Facility (Livermore, USA), where protons were accelerated from 23 $\mathrm {\mu }$m thick plastic targets and directed onto a LiF converter to produce neutrons. For this purpose, several diagnostics were used to measure these neutron emissions, such as CR-39, activation foils, time-of-flight detectors and direct measurement of $^7{\rm Be}$ residual activity in the LiF converters. The use of these different, independently operating diagnostics enables comparison of the various measurements performed to provide a robust characterization. These measurements led to a neutron yield of $2.0\times 10^{9}$ neutrons per shot with a modest angular dependence, close to that simulated.

Specifically designed microlattices are able to combine outstanding mechanical and physical properties and, thus, expand the actual limits of the material property space. However, post-yield softening induced by plastic buckling or crushing of individual ligaments limits performance under cyclic loading, which affects their energy absorption capabilities. Understanding deformation under repeated loading is key to further optimizing these high-strength materials. While until now mainly hollow metallic microlattices and multistable or tailored buckling structures have been analyzed, this study investigates deformation and failure of polymer and ceramic-polymer microlattices under cyclic loading to understand the (i) influence of the microarchitecture and (ii) influence of processing conditions on the energy absorption capability. Despite fracture of individual struts, the stretching-dominated microarchitectures possess a superior behavior especially for larger cycle numbers. In combination with a specific annealing treatment of the polymer material, high recoverability and energy dissipation can be achieved.

Three dimensional visualization of ion channeling spectra was obtained by computer graphics in order to observe the crystalline quality and the strain state of thin films. Pure (100)Si and Si1-xGex (x=0.10, 0.18) layers, epitaxially grown on (100)Si substrates, were channeled along the <110> crystal axis with the 2 MeV He++ ion beam in a UHV target chamber. The data were interpolated using a standard bicubic tensor product B-spline surface with uniform knot sequences in x and y directions. With this modeling technique we have shown the orientation of the major planes in a diamond crystal and the angular displacement of the Ge signal in the SiGe epilayer relative to the Si substrate signal due to the presence of tetragonal distortion in the epilayer.