Solid Cherenkov detector for studying nucleosynthesis in inertial confinement fusion

Measuring gamma rays emitted from nuclear reactions gives insight into their nuclear structure. Notably, there are several nuclear reactions that produce gamma rays at ∼1 MeV-3 MeV energies such as T(⁴He, γ)⁷Li, ⁴He(³He, γ)⁷Be, and ¹²C(p, γ)¹³N, which may solve questions lingering about big-bang nucleosynthesis and stellar nucleosynthesis. To observe 1 MeV-3 MeV gamma rays in an inertial confinement fusion system, a new style of the Cherenkov detector was developed using aerogel and fused silica as a Cherenkov medium. Utilizing the OMEGA laser facility, both aerogel and fused silica media were compared with the existing gas-medium Cherenkov detector to validate the concept. Gamma ray measurements from high yield inertial confinement fusion implosions (deuterium-tritium and deuterium-³He) demonstrated that aerogel and fused silica were viable Cherenkov media, paving the way for a potential optimized detector to make these cross section measurements on OMEGA or the National Ignition Facility.