Quasi-monoenergetic protons accelerated by laser radiation pressure and shocks in thin gaseous targets

He, Miaohong; Shao, Xi; Liu, Chuansheng; Liu, Tung-Chang; Su, J. J.; Dudnikova, G. I.; Sagdeev, R. Z.; Sheng, Zheng-Ming

doi:10.1063/1.4740053

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The scheme of laser RPA of quasi-monoenergetic protons has been actively studied in theory and simulations [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] and experiments. 20,21 In RPA, or equivalently "light sail," high intensity circularly polarized laser light with a high contrast ratio accelerates nearly the whole thin foil by the radiation pressure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of proton energy by polarization switch in laser acceleration of multi-ion foils

et al. 2013

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We present a scheme to significantly increase the energy of quasi-monoenergetic protons accelerated by a laser beam without increasing the input power. This improvement is accomplished by first irradiating the foil several wave periods with circular polarization and then switching the laser to linear polarization. The polarization switch increases the electron temperature and thereby moves more electrons ahead of the proton layer, resulting in a space charge electric field pushing the protons forwards. The scaling of the proton energy evolution with respect to the switching time is studied, and an optimal switching time is obtained. The proton energy for the case with optimal switching time can reach about 80 MeV with an input laser power of 70 TW, an improvement of more than 30% compared to the case without polarization switch

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of proton energy by polarization switch in laser acceleration of multi-ion foils

et al. 2013

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“…In order to acquire quasi-monoenergetic protons, the scheme of laser RPA has been actively studied in theory and simulations [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] and experiments. 27,28 In RPA, a high intensity circularly polarized laser beam irradiates an ultra-thin foil and accelerates nearly the whole foil by the radiation pressure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spot size dependence of laser accelerated protons in thin multi-ion foils

et al. 2014

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We present a numerical study of the effect of the laser spot size of a circularly polarized laser beam on the energy of quasi-monoenergetic protons in laser proton acceleration using a thin carbon-hydrogen foil. The used proton acceleration scheme is a combination of laser radiation pressure and shielded Coulomb repulsion due to the carbon ions. We observe that the spot size plays a crucial role in determining the net charge of the electron-shielded carbon ion foil and consequently the efficiency of proton acceleration. Using a laser pulse with fixed input energy and pulse length impinging on a carbon-hydrogen foil, a laser beam with smaller spot sizes can generate higher energy but fewer quasi-monoenergetic protons. We studied the scaling of the proton energy with respect to the laser spot size and obtained an optimal spot size for maximum proton energy flux. Using the optimal spot size, we can generate an 80 MeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beam containing more than 108 protons using a laser beam with power 250 TW and energy 10 J and a target of thickness 0.15 wavelength and 49 critical density made of 90% carbon and 10% hydrogen

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“…In the realm of laser acceleration of protons from a target foil, there are mainly two schemes being widely studied: target normal sheath acceleration [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA). In particular, to acquire quasi-monoenergetic protons, the scheme of laser RPA has been actively studied in theory and simulations [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and experiments [24][25][26]. In RPA in the light-sail region, a high intensity laser beam irradiates an overdense thin foil (or an overdense thin foil formed by laser radiation compression) and accelerates nearly the whole foil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been demonstrated, for example, that micrometer-sized nozzles and skimmers can be used to produce supersonic helium atom beams [36]. Previous numerical and experimental studies [23,37] showed that it is possible to produce high-energy quasi-monoenergetic proton beams from a gaseous hydrogen target accelerated by a CO 2 laser with a wavelength of 10 μm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser acceleration of protons using multi-ion plasma gaseous targets

et al. 2015

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We present a theoretical and numerical study of a novel acceleration scheme by applying a combination of laser radiation pressure and shielded Coulomb repulsion in laser acceleration of protons in multi-species gaseous targets. By using a circularly polarized CO 2 laser pulse with a wavelength of 10 μm-much greater than that of a Ti: Sapphire laser-the critical density is significantly reduced, and a high-pressure gaseous target can be used to achieve an overdense plasma. This gives us a larger degree of freedom in selecting the target compounds or mixtures, as well as their density and thickness profiles. By impinging such a laser beam on a carbon-hydrogen target, the gaseous target is first compressed and accelerated by radiation pressure until the electron layer disrupts, after which the protons are further accelerated by the electron-shielded carbon ion layer. An 80 MeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beam can be generated using a half-sine shaped laser beam with a peak power of 70 TW and a pulse duration of 150 wave periods.

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Quasi-monoenergetic protons accelerated by laser radiation pressure and shocks in thin gaseous targets

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Enhancement of proton energy by polarization switch in laser acceleration of multi-ion foils

Enhancement of proton energy by polarization switch in laser acceleration of multi-ion foils

Spot size dependence of laser accelerated protons in thin multi-ion foils

Laser acceleration of protons using multi-ion plasma gaseous targets

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