Intense High-Energy Proton Beams from Petawatt-Laser Irradiation of Solids

Snavely, R.; Key, M. H.; Hatchett, S.; Cowan, T. E.; Roth, Markus; Phillips, T. W.; Stoyer, M. A.; Henry, E. A.; Sangster, T. C.; Singh, M. S.; Wilks, S. C.; Mackinnon, A. J.; Offenberger, A. A.; Pennington, D. M.; Yasuike, K.; Langdon, A. B.; Lasinski, B. F.; Johnson, J.; Perry, M. D.; Campbell, E. M.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.2945

Cited by 1,584 publications

(881 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Proton acceleration to tens of MeV energies and in low divergent beams of excellent quality has been demonstrated (Clark et al 2000a;Snavely et al 2000). Heavier ions have also been observed, with energies up to hundreds of MeV (Clark et al 2000b;Hegelich et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…It has been shown experimentally that proton beams are generated with low transverse and longitudinal emittance (about 100 fold better than beams produced from typical RF accelerators; Cowan et al 2004). The ions are produced in short bunches of high brightness with a measured efficiency of conversion from laser energy to ions as high as 12% (Snavely et al 2000). An interesting application of laser-driven protons is to probe the evolution of electric fields within a plasma (Borghesi et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-intensity laser-driven proton acceleration: influence of pulse contrast

McKenna

Lindau²,

Lundh³

et al. 2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Proton acceleration from the interaction of ultra-short laser pulses with thin foil targets at intensities greater than 10 18 W cm −2 is discussed. An overview of the physical processes giving rise to the generation of protons with multi-MeV energies, in well defined beams with excellent spatial quality, is presented. Specifically, the discussion centres on the influence of laser pulse contrast on the spatial and energy distributions of accelerated proton beams. Results from an ongoing experimental investigation of proton acceleration using the 10 Hz multi-terawatt Ti : sapphire laser (35 fs, 35 TW) at the Lund Laser Centre are discussed. It is demonstrated that a window of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) conditions exist, for which the direction of proton emission is sensitive to the ASE-pedestal preceding the peak of the laser pulse, and that by significantly improving the temporal contrast, using plasma mirrors, efficient proton acceleration is observed from target foils with thickness less than 50 nm.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-intensity laser-driven proton acceleration: influence of pulse contrast

McKenna

Lindau²,

Lundh³

et al. 2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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“…This should aid both carrying out higher detail simulations and design of proof-of-principle experiments to enable applications in both ion and proton beam focusing to a small spot for targets and for beam collimation for injection in an accelerator. Short pulse laser-illuminated foils produce proton beams with very low emittances, high enough energy, and high spacecharge intensity [24][25][26][27]. Such proton beams provide an opportunity to test passive foil focusing on existing laboratory systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Envelope model for passive magnetic focusing of an intense proton or ion beam propagating through thin foils

Lund

Cohen

2013

Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams

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Ion beams (including protons) with low emittance and high space-charge intensity can be propagated with normal incidence through a sequence of thin metallic foils separated by vacuum gaps of order the characteristic transverse beam extent to transport/collimate the beam or to focus it to a small transverse spot. Energetic ions have sufficient range to pass through a significant number of thin foils with little energy loss or scattering. The foils reduce the (defocusing) radial electric self-field of the beam while not altering the (focusing) azimuthal magnetic self-field of the beam, thereby allowing passive self-beam focusing if the magnetic field is sufficiently strong relative to the residual electric field. Here we present an envelope model developed to predict the strength of this passive (beam generated) focusing effect under a number of simplifying assumptions including relatively long pulse duration. The envelope model provides a simple criterion for the necessary foil spacing for net focusing and clearly illustrates system focusing properties for either beam collimation (such as injecting a laser-produced proton beam into an accelerator) or for magnetic pinch focusing to a small transverse spot (for beam driven heating of materials). An illustrative example is worked for an idealization of a recently performed laser-produced proton-beam experiment to provide guidance on possible beam focusing and collimation systems. It is found that foils spaced on the order of the characteristic transverse beam size desired can be employed and that envelope divergence of the initial beam entering the foil lens must be suppressed to limit the total number of foils required to practical values for pinch focusing. Relatively modest proton-beam current at 10 MeV kinetic energy can clearly demonstrate strong magnetic pinch focusing achieving a transverse rms extent similar to the foil spacing (20-50 m gaps) in beam propagation distances of tens of mm. This is a surprisingly optimistic result since placing many foils per characteristic beam radius, which one might expect to be necessary to strongly attenuate the self-electric field, would likely result in excessive scattering and loss of focusing from the current neutralization due to the beam propagating too far through solid metal. Results from the envelope model are compared with particle-in-cell simulations to help clarify limits related to envelope-model idealizations. Possible degradations of focusing in situations where strong halo can be generated and where pulse duration is short are clarified.

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“…A well-understood and widely-used mechanism for laserbased ion acceleration is the TNSA machanism (target normal sheath acceleration, [10,11]). It is most efficiently used for accelerating protons and shows excellent beam properties with respect to bunch intensity and emittance [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commissioning of a compact laser-based proton beam line for high intensity bunches around 10 MeV

Busold

Schumacher

Deppert

et al. 2014

Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams

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We report on the first results of experiments with a new laser-based proton beam line at the GSI accelerator facility in Darmstadt. It delivers high current bunches at proton energies around 9.6 MeV, containing more than 10 9 particles in less than 10 ns and with tunable energy spread down to 2.7% (ΔE=E 0 at FWHM). A target normal sheath acceleration stage serves as a proton source and a pulsed solenoid provides for beam collimation and energy selection. Finally a synchronous radio frequency (rf) field is applied via a rf cavity for energy compression at a synchronous phase of −90 deg. The proton bunch is characterized at the end of the very compact beam line, only 3 m behind the laser matter interaction point, which defines the particle source.

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Intense High-Energy Proton Beams from Petawatt-Laser Irradiation of Solids

Cited by 1,584 publications

References 19 publications

High-intensity laser-driven proton acceleration: influence of pulse contrast

High-intensity laser-driven proton acceleration: influence of pulse contrast

Envelope model for passive magnetic focusing of an intense proton or ion beam propagating through thin foils

Commissioning of a compact laser-based proton beam line for high intensity bunches around 10 MeV

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