Influence of target curvature on the characteristics of particle beams generated by laser ion acceleration with microstructured enhanced targets at ultra high intensity

Tatomirescu, Dragos; Vizman, Daniel; d’Humières, E.

doi:10.1088/1361-6587/ab469a

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…One of the most widely used performance benchmarks in practice is the maximum achievable ion energy. In the pursuit for higher maximum ion energies, progress has been made with more powerful petawatt lasers [4,5], controlled pulse delivery [6][7][8][9] and optimized targets [10][11][12]. Over the last two decades, the field has witnessed an improvement of the maximum proton energy from 58 MeV, obtained early in 1999 [13], to recently more than 90 MeV [14,15].…”

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confidence: 99%

Optimized laser ion acceleration at the relativistic critical density surface

Göthel

Bernert

Bußmann

et al. 2022

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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In the effort of achieving high-energetic ion beams from the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with a plasma, volumetric acceleration mechanisms beyond Target Normal Sheath Acceleration have gained attention. A relativisticly intense laser can turn a near critical density plasma slowly transparent, facilitating a synchronized acceleration of ions at the moving relativistic critical density front. While simulations promise extremely high ion energies in in this regime, the challenge resides in the realization of a synchronized movement of the ultra- relativistic laser pulse (a0>∼30) driven reflective relativistic electron front and the fastest ions, which imposes a narrow parameter range on the laser and plasma parameters. We present an analytic model for the relevant processes, confirmed by a broad parameter simulation study in 1D- and 3D-geometry. By tayloring the pulse length and plasma density profile at the front side, we can optimize the proton acceleration performance and extend the regions in parameter space of efficient ion acceleration at the relativistic relativistic density surface.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimized laser ion acceleration at the relativistic critical density surface

Göthel

Bernert

Bußmann

et al. 2022

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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Laser-ion acceleration using mixed compositions: Tailoring the target for each species

2019

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Particle-in-cell simulations of laser- ion acceleration demonstrate marked discrepancies in the acceleration experienced by the different ion species in complex target compositions, especially when the target becomes relativistically transparent to the pulse during irradiation. Beginning with proton contaminants in a carbon target, we show how the higher charge-to-mass ratio of the protons results in species stratification and late-time suppression of the carbon acceleration. The target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) primarily experienced by the protons can be exploited to mitigate this tamping by using a shaped rear surface of the target, leaving the break-out afterburner-driven carbons to accelerate close to the laser axis and then experience less tamping during a late-time TNSA phase. We then explore preferentially accelerating the lighter species in a mixed composition target, particularly focusing on deuteron beam applications. We examine three different target compositions with the same areal electron density, CD2, CH2, and 7LiD, and propose an alternative shaping of the rear surface of 7LiD to increase the number of high-energy deuterons in the beam.

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