Forward Ion Acceleration in Thin Films Driven by a High-Intensity Laser

Maksimchuk, A.; Gu, S.; Flippo, K. A.; Umstadter, D.; Bychenkov, V. Yu.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.84.4108

Cited by 714 publications

(408 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In recent years a controversy occurs if this (target) "rear-side" process or a "front-side" acceleration is responsible for high energetic (MeV) proton generation. The "front-side" acceleration is explained by the charge separation near the critical surface at the front-side of the target [72]. A similar explanation is given in reference [73] by the so-called shock acceleration.…”

Section: Alternative Acceleration Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

Sokollik

2011

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Section: Alternative Acceleration Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

Sokollik

2011

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“…This acceleration is similar to the old proposal to accelerate space ships to relativistic velocities by laser pressure radiation [15,16] . Ion acceleration in thin films driven by laser pressure in the domain of 10 18 W/cm 2 was reported [17] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat wave fast ignition in inertial confinement energy

Eliezer

Pinhasi²

2013

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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An accelerated micro-foil is used to ignite a pre-compressed cylindrical shell containing deuterium-tritium fuel. The well-known shock wave ignition criterion and a novel criterion based on heat wave ignition are developed in this work. It is shown that for heat ignition very high impact velocities are required. It is suggested that a multi-petawatt laser can accelerate a micro-foil to relativistic velocities in a very short time duration (˜picosecond) of the laser pulse. The cylindrical geometry suggested here for the fast ignition approach has the advantage of geometrically separating the nanosecond lasers that compress the target from the picosecond laser that accelerates the foil. The present model suggests that nuclear fusion by micro-foil impact ignition could be attained with currently existing technology.

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“…Further design improvements on such machines need to be made before they may be used as ion sources for direct acceleration. An alternative source could possibly be a solid target of micro-or nanoscale thickness, perhaps blown off by a laser pulse, as in the TNSA mechanism [7,8] and the laser-piston regime [21], followed at the appropriate time delay by an accelerating pulse of the type discussed in this Letter.…”

Section: ]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This superstrong field accelerates the ions to tens of MeV over a distance in the µm range [6]. Recent work [7] has shown that proton beams produced by this method of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) may be improved in energy and beam quality by the use of foils less than 1 µm in thickness [8]. In earlier experiments, employing thicker foils, a small fraction of the energy got converted to proton energy.…”

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confidence: 99%

Direct High-Power Laser Acceleration of Ions for Medical Applications

2008

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Theoretical investigations show that linearly and radially polarized multiterawatt and petawatt laser beams, focused to subwavelength waist radii, can directly accelerate protons and carbon nuclei, over micron-size distances, to the energies required for hadron cancer therapy. Ions accelerated by radially polarized lasers have generally a more favorable energy spread than those accelerated by linearly polarized lasers of the same intensity.PACS numbers: 52.28. Kd, 37.10.Vz, 52.75.Di Protons and heavier ions are now being used to treat cancer at a number of places around the world [1]. Ion lithography schemes seem to be heading for practical application [2] and fusion research continues to attract considerable attention and to gain in importance [3]. In addition, considerable effort is being devoted to research into the fundamental forces of nature, the initiation of nuclear reactions and into schemes to treat radioactive waste [4]. In these applications, conventional accelerators (synchrotrons, cyclotrons and linacs) are employed which are large and expensive to build and operate.To produce and accelerate ions, current plasma-based research focuses on the use of thin foils irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses of intensity > 10 18 W/cm 2 [5]. Typically a laser pulse is incident on the thin foil giving rise to an overdense plasma from which the electrons get accelerated, form a dense sheath on the opposite side and generate a quasistatic electric field of strength in excess of 10 12 V/m. This superstrong field accelerates the ions to tens of MeV over a distance in the µm range [6]. Recent work [7] has shown that proton beams produced by this method of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) may be improved in energy and beam quality by the use of foils less than 1 µm in thickness [8]. In earlier experiments, employing thicker foils, a small fraction of the energy got converted to proton energy. Furthermore, the protons had energy spreads reaching 100%.In hadron therapy [9, 10,11], for example, the ions are required to have kinetic energies K = 20 − 250 MeV/nucleon (H + and He 2+ ) and K = 85 − 430 MeV/nucleon (C 6+ and O 8+ ). The ions also ought to have an energy spread ∆K f /K f < 1% so that they may be focused on the tumor while sparing the neighboring healthy tissue. A beam of rectangular cross section is also desirable [11].In this Letter we study direct laser acceleration configurations of protons and bare carbon nuclei. The aim is to make predictions regarding the optimum conditions that would lead to the ion energies of interest to hadron therapy. A source for the ions may be a dedicated electron beam ion trap/source (EBIT/EBIS) [12] from which they can be extracted in a well-defined fully ionized charge state or an ensemble of fully stripped ions produced by laser-solid interaction. We consider a situation in which the source has been tailored on a nanoscale [9,13]. We study the dynamics of an ensemble of N particles having normally distributed kinetic energies, using the singleparticle relativistic...

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Forward Ion Acceleration in Thin Films Driven by a High-Intensity Laser

Cited by 714 publications

References 22 publications

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

Heat wave fast ignition in inertial confinement energy

Direct High-Power Laser Acceleration of Ions for Medical Applications

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