Unlimited Ion Acceleration by Radiation Pressure

Bulanov, Sergei V.; Echkina, E. Yu.; Esirkepov, T. Zh.; Inovenkov, I. N.; Kando, M.; Пегораро, Ф.; Korn, G.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.104.135003

Cited by 171 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Moreover, recently Bulanov et al have argued that this kind of transverse loss could actually benefit the remaining target acceleration, and results into the accelerated ions getting phase locked with the electromagnetic wave. This could, in principle, produce unlimited ion energy gain [12]. Certainly, the stable acceleration structure should be kept intact before the phase locking could actually occur.…”

Section: Light Pressure Thermal Pressure Ions Electronsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stabilized radiation pressure dominated ion acceleration from surface modulated thin-foil targets

et al. 2011

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We study transverse and longitudinal electron heating effects on the target stability and the ion spectra in the radiation pressure dominated regime of ion acceleration by means of multi dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Efficient ion acceleration occurs when the longitudinal electron temperature is kept as low as possible. However, tailoring of the transverse electron temperature is required in view of suppressing the transverse instability, which can keep the target structure intact for longer duration during the acceleration stage. We suggest using the surface erosion of the target to increase the transverse temperature, which improves both the final peak energy and the spectral quality of the ions in comparison with a normal flat target.PACS numbers: 41.75. Jv, 52.38.Kd In recent years, ion acceleration from thin foil targets has emerged as one of key areas of research in the field of laser plasma interaction [1]. The laser foil target interaction can produce energetic ions with energies as high as 56MeV per nucleon. Target engineering is crucial to get the mono-energetic ion beams [2]. These ion beams have extremely short duration (∼fs), highly collimated and are relatively easy to produce, which makes them suitable for many applications, such as proton imaging [3], ion therapy [4], ion beam ignition of laser fusion targets [5] and so on. It was recently suggested to utilize the circularly polarized (CP) laser pulses for very high energy ion acceleration [6]. In the case of CP pulse, the electron heating is dramatically reduced, thus ion acceleration doesn't occur due to the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA), instead radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) dominates. Though energy scalings predicted by 1D theory of RPA regime of acceleration have been reproduced very well in numerous one dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, the accelerated target is far less stable in a real 3D geometry compare to 1D geometry. For instance, in the case of a Gaussian pulse interacting with a flat target, target deformation occurs, which leads to the broadening of the final energy spectrum, and reduces the energy conversion efficiency; though it can be overcome by the use of shaped targets [7]. Another major bottleneck in the ion acceleration is the excitation of the Rayleigh-Taylor like instabilities, which leads to the breaking of the target [8,9]. Thus, efficacy of the RPA scheme is limited by the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor like instability; which also appears to be a cause of great concern in ion beam driven fast ignition. Prevention of this instability is an important problem which needs to be addressed quickly.As described above, the RPA mechanism dominates when the electron heating is suppressed; this condition can be fairly met if one resorts to the use of the CP laser pulses. However, the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor like instability, also known as transverse instability, remain a concern for the CP laser pulses. With regards to electron temperature, there is tradeoff as large perpe...

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Section: Light Pressure Thermal Pressure Ions Electronsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stabilized radiation pressure dominated ion acceleration from surface modulated thin-foil targets

et al. 2011

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“…However, in classical RPA and laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), 22 the accelerated ion bunch tends to diverge because of the ubiquitous intense space-charge field. [23][24][25] The resulting defocusing leads to rather low ion flux. Moreover, the effective laser-plasma interaction distance is also limited by laser diffraction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-driven collimated tens-GeV monoenergetic protons from mass-limited target plus preformed channel

Zheng

et al. 2013

Physics of Plasmas

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Proton acceleration by ultra-intense laser pulse irradiating a target with cross-section smaller than the laser spot size and connected to a parabolic density channel is investigated. The target splits the laser into two parallel propagating parts, which snowplow the back-side plasma electrons along their paths, creating two adjacent parallel wakes and an intense return current in the gap between them. The radiation-pressure pre-accelerated target protons trapped in the wake fields now undergo acceleration as well as collimation by the quasistatic wake electrostatic and magnetic fields. Particle-in-cell simulations show that stable long-distance acceleration can be realized, and a 30 fs monoenergetic ion beam of >10 GeV peak energy and <2 divergence can be produced by a circularly polarized laser pulse at an intensity of about 10 22 W/cm 2 . V C 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx

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“…However, according to the results of Ref. [59,63], the laser profile given by Eq. (11) suppresses the development of the RT instability.…”

Section: Target Transparency Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiation pressure acceleration: The factors limiting maximum attainable ion energy

et al. 2016

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Radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) is a highly efficient mechanism of laser-driven ion acceleration, with with near complete transfer of the laser energy to the ions in the relativistic regime. However, there is a fundamental limit on the maximum attainable ion energy, which is determined by the group velocity of the laser. The tightly focused laser pulses have group velocities smaller than the vacuum light speed, and, since they offer the high intensity needed for the RPA regime, it is plausible that group velocity effects would manifest themselves in the experiments involving tightly focused pulses and thin foils. However, in this case, finite spot size effects are important, and another limiting factor, the transverse expansion of the target, may dominate over the group velocity effect. As the laser pulse diffracts after passing the focus, the target expands accordingly due to the transverse intensity profile of the laser. Due to this expansion, the areal density of the target decreases, making it transparent for radiation and effectively terminating the acceleration. The off-normal incidence of the laser on the target, due either to the experimental setup, or to the deformation of the target, will also lead to establishing a limit on maximum ion energy.

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Unlimited Ion Acceleration by Radiation Pressure

Cited by 171 publications

References 35 publications

Stabilized radiation pressure dominated ion acceleration from surface modulated thin-foil targets

Stabilized radiation pressure dominated ion acceleration from surface modulated thin-foil targets

Laser-driven collimated tens-GeV monoenergetic protons from mass-limited target plus preformed channel

Radiation pressure acceleration: The factors limiting maximum attainable ion energy

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