We report on the first successful demonstration of selective deuteron acceleration by the target normal sheath acceleration mechanism in which the normally overwhelming proton and carbon ion contaminant signals are suppressed by orders of magnitude relative to the deuteron signal. The deuterium ions originated from a layer of heavy ice that was deposited on to the rear surface of a 500 nm thick membrane of Si3N4 and Al. Our data show that the measured spectrum of ions produced by heavy ice targets is comprised of ∼99% deuterium ions. With a laser pulse of approximately 0.5 J, 120 fs duration, and ∼5×1018Wcm-2 mean intensity, the maximum recorded deuterium ion energy and yield normal to the target rear surface were 3.5 MeV and 1.2×1012sr−1, respectively.

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