Measurements of Energetic Proton Transport through Magnetized Plasma from Intense Laser Interactions with Solids

Abstract

Protons with energies up to 18 MeV have been measured from high density laser-plasma interactions at incident laser intensities of 5x10(19) W/cm(2). Up to 10(12) protons with energies greater than 2 MeV were observed to propagate through a 125 &mgr;m thick aluminum target and measurements of their angular deflection were made. It is likely that the protons originate from the front surface of the target and are bent by large magnetic fields which exist in the target interior. To agree with our measurements these fields would be in excess of 30 MG and would be generated by the beam of fast electrons which is also observed.

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

“…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).…”

Exploring novel target structures for manipulating relativistic laser–plasma interaction

“…They can be applied to various aspects such as target normal sheath acceleration of ions [16][17][18][19][20][21] , x/γ -ray emission [22] and generation of MeV-positron beams [23] . Both the cut-off energy and the population can be manipulated by adjusting the length and spatial period of the well-organized structures.…”

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

“…Ring structures were observed in different experiments (e.g. [106]) but without the possibility to reconstruct the proton shape. Thus, it is unclear if the ring structure is caused by the gaussian shape or e.g.…”