We investigate the deuteron-triton (DT) fusion in a three-body collision system of $\mathrm{T}\mu$ (i.e, a muon bound to a triton) impacted by a deuteron in the presence of intense laser fields with a semiclassical (SC) method. In this model, the initial positions and momenta of triton and muon are sampled from microcanonical distribution, and the dynamical process of a deuteron with a given incident kinetic energy colliding with the $\mathrm{T}\mu$ atom is simulated by tracing the classical trajectories in the combined Coulomb potentials and laser fields. At the minimum distance between the deuteron and triton, quantum tunneling through the Coulomb barrier emerges, and the penetrability can be estimated with the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin formula. DT nuclear fusion occurs after this quantum tunneling, and the total fusion cross section takes the Gamow form. Within the framework of the SC model, we investigate the charge shielding effect, demonstrating that this effect emerges in the low energy regime, where the impact velocity of the deuteron is smaller than the average velocity of muons in the bound state. Furthermore, the tunneling penetrability is considerably enhanced because the deuteron closely approaches the triton due to the quiver motions of charged nuclei driven by intense laser fields. As a result, the fusion cross section in this in-flight muon catalyzed fusion system can be enhanced by up to six orders of magnitude. Moreover, we calculated the DT fusion sections for a wide range of laser parameters and obtained phase diagrams demonstrating the enhanced DT fusion. Finally, important implications in achieving a large number of fusion reactions catalyzed by muons assisted by laser fields are discussed.

• Received 9 September 2022
• Revised 15 November 2022
• Accepted 9 December 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.064611