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Abstract The NanoPlasmonic Laser Induced Fusion Energy (NAPLIFE)1 project proposed fusion by regulating the laser light absorption via resonant nanorod antennas implanted into hydrogen rich urethane acrylate methacrylate (UDMA) and triethylene glycol dimethylacrylate (TEGDMA) copolymer targets. In part of the tests, boron-nitride (BN) was added to the polymer. Our experiments with resonant nanoantennas accelerated protons up to 225 keV energy. Some of these protons then led to p + 11B fusion, indicated by the sharp drop of observed backward proton emission numbers at the 150 keV resonance energy of the reaction. The generation of alpha particles was verified by CR-39 (Columbia Resin #39) nuclear plastic track detectors.

Abstract In this brief report, we present laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) evidence of deuterium (D) production in a 3:1 urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) and triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) polymer doped with resonant gold nanorods, induced by intense, 40 fs laser pulses. The in situ recorded LIBS spectra revealed that the D/(2D + H) increased to 4–8% in the polymer samples in selected events. The extent of transmutation was found to linearly increase with the laser pulse energy (intensity) between 2 and 25 mJ (up to 3 × 1017W/cm2). The observed effect is attributed only to the field enhancing effects due to excited localized surface plasmons on the gold nanoparticles.