Electron heating by intense short-pulse lasers propagating through near-critical plasmas

Debayle, A.; Mollica, F; Vauzour, B.; Wan, Y.; Flacco, Alessandro; Malka, Victor; Davoine, Xavier; Grémillet, L.

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aa953f

Cited by 12 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 100 publications

(138 reference statements)

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“…In general, however, proton acceleration depends on additional parameters such as gas length, foil thickness, laser intensity and duration and on the location of the focal plane. To aid the determination of the optimal gas parameters, which correspond to almost full laser absorption through the gas, one can make use of the scaling given in Debayle et al (2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At a lower density, this push-pull mechanism would generate an oscillating plasma wakefield. Here, due to the high plasma density, the highly nonlinear wakefield breaks after just one oscillation, thereby converting its kinetic and potential energy into electron heat via phase mixing (Debayle et al 2017).…”

Section: Effect Of the Gas On Laser Absorption And Proton Energiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here account is taken of the intensified laser field (up to a 0 20) due to self-focusing in the gas. The collective interaction of the fast electrons (iv) with the counterstreaming dense flow (ii) contributes to the fast thermalization of the latter (Debayle et al 2017). Note that the coupling between the laser and plasma fields may also trigger resonant-type acceleration mechanisms inside the laser All of the above energetic electron populations can contribute to TNSA in the foil target.…”

Section: Effect Of the Gas On Laser Absorption And Proton Energiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The collective interaction of the fast electrons (iv) with the counterstreaming dense flow (ii) contributes to the fast thermalization of the latter (Debayle et al. 2017). Note that the coupling between the laser and plasma fields may also trigger resonant-type acceleration mechanisms inside the laser pulse (Pukhov, Sheng & Meyer-ter Vehn 1999; Zhang & Krasheninnikov 2019), which can further boost the maximum electron energies.…”

Section: Enhanced Ion Acceleration In Gas–foil Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At moderate laser amplitudes (), the thermal electron energy weakly depends on the gas density (see figure 6 of Debayle et al. 2017). Specifically, in the range of interest in our simulations, varies by less than when the electron density is increased from to .…”

Section: Enhanced Ion Acceleration In Gas–foil Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration with gas–foil targets

et al. 2020

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We study numerically the mechanisms of proton acceleration in gas–foil targets driven by an ultraintense femtosecond laser pulse. The target consists of a near-critical-density hydrogen gas layer of a few tens of microns attached to a $2\ \mathrm {\mu }$ m-thick solid carbon foil with a contaminant thin proton layer at its back side. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that, at optimal gas density, the maximum energy of the contaminant protons is increased by a factor of $\sim$ 4 compared with a single foil target. This improvement originates from the near-complete laser absorption into relativistic electrons in the gas. Several energetic electron populations are identified, and their respective effect on the proton acceleration is quantified by computing the electrostatic fields that they generate at the protons’ positions. While each of those electron groups is found to contribute substantially to the overall accelerating field, the dominant one is the relativistic thermal bulk that results from the nonlinear wakefield excited in the gas, as analysed recently by Debayle et al. (New J. Phys., vol. 19, 2017, 123013). Our analysis also reveals the important role of the neighbouring ions in the acceleration of the fastest protons, and the onset of multidimensional effects caused by the time-increasing curvature of the proton layer.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effect Of the Gas On Laser Absorption And Proton Energiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effect Of the Gas On Laser Absorption And Proton Energiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Enhanced Ion Acceleration In Gas–foil Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Enhanced Ion Acceleration In Gas–foil Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration with gas–foil targets

et al. 2020

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Proton and helium ions acceleration in near-critical density gas targets by short-pulse Ti:Sa PW-class laser

Henares,

Puyuelo-Valdes,

Salgado-López

et al. 2023

J. Plasma Phys.

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The ability to quickly refresh gas-jet targets without cycling the vacuum chamber makes them a promising candidate for laser-accelerated ion experiments at high repetition rate. Here we present results from the first high repetition rate ion acceleration experiment on the VEGA-3 PW-class laser at CLPU. A near-critical density gas-jet target was produced by forcing a 1000 bar H $_2$ and He gas mix through bespoke supersonic shock nozzles. Proton energies up to 2 MeV were measured in the laser forward direction and 2.2 MeV transversally. He $^{2+}$ ions up to 5.8 MeV were also measured in the transverse direction. To help maintain a consistent gas density profile over many shots, nozzles were designed to produce a high-density shock at distances larger than 1 mm from the nozzle exit. We outline a procedure for optimizing the laser–gas interaction by translating the nozzle along the laser axis and using different nozzle materials. Several tens of laser interactions were performed with the same nozzle which demonstrates the potential usefulness of gas-jet targets as high repetition rate particle source.

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High-flux neutron generation by laser-accelerated ions from single- and double-layer targets

Horný

Chen

Davoine

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Contemporary ultraintense, short-pulse laser systems provide extremely compact setups for the production of high-flux neutron beams, such as those required for nondestructive probing of dense matter, research on neutron-induced damage in fusion devices or laboratory astrophysics studies. Here, by coupling particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo numerical simulations, we examine possible strategies to optimise neutron sources from ion-induced nuclear reactions using 1-PW, 20-fs-class laser systems. To improve the ion acceleration, the laser-irradiated targets are chosen to be ultrathin solid foils, either standing alone or preceded by a plasma layer of near-critical density to enhance the laser focusing. We compare the performance of these single- and double-layer targets, and determine their optimum parameters in terms of energy and angular spectra of the accelerated ions. These are then sent into a converter to generate neutrons via nuclear reactions on beryllium and lead nuclei. Overall, we identify configurations that result in neutron yields as high as $$\sim 10^{10}\,{\mathrm{n}}\,{\mathrm{sr}}^{-1}$$ ∼ 10 10 n sr - 1 in $$\sim 1$$ ∼ 1 -cm-thick converters or instantaneous neutron fluxes above $$10^{23}\,{\mathrm{n}}\,{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}\,{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$$ 10 23 n cm - 2 s - 1 at the backside of $$\lesssim 100$$ ≲ 100 -$$\upmu$$ μ m-thick converters. Considering a realistic repetition rate of one laser shot per minute, the corresponding time-averaged neutron yields are predicted to reach values ($$\gtrsim 10^7\,{\mathrm{n}} \,{\mathrm{sr}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$$ ≳ 10 7 n sr - 1 s - 1 ) well above the current experimental record, and this even with a mere thin foil as a primary target. A further increase in the time-averaged yield up to above $$10^8\,{\mathrm{sr}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$$ 10 8 sr - 1 s - 1 is foreseen using double-layer targets.

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Electron heating by intense short-pulse lasers propagating through near-critical plasmas

Cited by 12 publications

References 100 publications

Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration with gas–foil targets

Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration with gas–foil targets

Proton and helium ions acceleration in near-critical density gas targets by short-pulse Ti:Sa PW-class laser

High-flux neutron generation by laser-accelerated ions from single- and double-layer targets

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