Nuclear fusion driven by Coulomb explosion of molecular clusters

Seventy years of searching for table-top nuclear fusion, based on reactions induced by chemical processes, reflects a multitude of experimental and conceptual failures. Nuclear fusion reactions can now be induced by ultrafast, high-energy dynamics of multicharged, large chemical systems. Compelling experimental and theoretical evidence has emerged for nuclear fusion driven by the Coulomb explosion of multicharged deuterium containing homonuclear and heteronuclear molecular clusters (see graphic) in ultraintense laser fields. The perspectives of these fusion reactions in the laboratory have uses in timeresolved short neutron pulses and in astrophysical applications.