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Liu M, Wang WM, Li YT. Steady regime of radiation pressure acceleration with foil thickness adjustable within micrometers under a 10-100 PW laser. Phys Rev E 2024; 109:015208. [PMID: 38366504 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.109.015208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
Quasimonoenergetic GeV-scale protons are predicted to be efficiently generated via radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) when the foil thickness is matched with the laser intensity, e.g., L_{mat} of several nm to 100 nm for 10^{19}-10^{22}Wcm^{-2} available in laboratory. However, nonmonoenergetic protons with much lower energies than predicted were usually observed in RPA experiments because of too small foil thickness which cannot support insufficient laser contrast and foil surface roughness. Besides the technical problems, we here find that there is an upper-limit thickness L_{up} derived from the requirement that the laser energy should dominate over the ion source energy in the effective laser-proton interaction zone, and L_{up} is lower than L_{mat} with the intensity below 10^{22}Wcm^{-2}, which causes inefficient or unsteady RPA. As the intensity is enhanced to ≥10^{23}Wcm^{-2} provided by 10-100 PW laser facilities, L_{up} can significantly exceed L_{mat}, and therefore RPA becomes efficient. In this regime, L_{mat} acts as a lower-limit thickness for efficient RPA, so the matching thickness can be extended to a continuous range from L_{mat} to L_{up}; the range can reach micrometers, within which foil thickness is adjustable. This makes RPA steady and meanwhile the above technical problems can be overcome. Particle-in-cell simulation shows that multi-GeV quasimonoenergetic proton beams can be steadily generated and the fluctuation of the energy peaks and the energy conversation efficiency remains stable although the thickness is taken in a larger range with increasing intensity. This work predicts that near future RPA experiments with 10-100 PW facilities will enter a new regime with a large range of usable foil thicknesses that can be adjusted to the interaction conditions for steady acceleration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng Liu
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190, China
- Department of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, Hebei 071003, China
| | - Wei-Min Wang
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Functional Materials and Micro-nano Devices, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
- Key Laboratory of Quantum State Construction and Manipulation (Ministry of Education), Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
| | - Yu-Tong Li
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190, China
- School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
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2
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Gong Z, Shen X, Hatsagortsyan KZ, Keitel CH. Electron Slingshot Acceleration in Relativistic Preturbulent Shocks Explored via Emitted Photon Polarization. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023; 131:225101. [PMID: 38101383 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.131.225101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Revised: 09/23/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Abstract
Transient electron dynamics near the interface of counterstreaming plasmas at the onset of a relativistic collisionless shock (RCS) is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. We identify a slingshotlike injection process induced by the drifting electric field sustained by the flowing focus of backward-moving electrons, which is distinct from the well-known stochastic acceleration. The flowing focus signifies the plasma kinetic transition from a preturbulent laminar motion to a chaotic turbulence. We find a characteristic correlation between the electron dynamics in the slingshot acceleration and the photon emission features. In particular, the integrated radiation from the RCS exhibits a counterintuitive nonmonotonic dependence of the photon polarization degree on the photon energy, which originates from a polarization degradation of relatively high-energy photons emitted by the slingshot-injected electrons. Our results demonstrate the potential of photon polarization as an essential information source in exploring intricate transient dynamics in RCSs with relevance for Earth-based plasma and astrophysical scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Gong
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Xiaofei Shen
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | | | - Christoph H Keitel
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
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3
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Theoretical Study of the Efficient Ion Acceleration Driven by Petawatt-Class Lasers via Stable Radiation Pressure Acceleration. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/app12062924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Laser-driven radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) is one of the most promising candidates to achieve quasi-monoenergetic ion beams. In particular, many petawatt systems are under construction or in the planning phase. Here, a stable radiation pressure acceleration (SRPA) scheme is investigated, in which a circularly-polarized (CP) laser pulse illuminates a CH2 thin foil followed by a large-scale near-critical-density (NCD) plasma. In the laser-foil interaction, a longitudinal charge-separated electric field is excited to accelerate ions together with the heating of electrons. The heating can be alleviated by the continuous replenishment of cold electrons of the NCD plasma as the laser pulse and the pre-accelerated ions enter into the NCD plasma. With the relativistically transparent propagation of the pulse in the NCD plasma, the accelerating field with large amplitude is persistent, and its propagating speed becomes relatively low, which further accelerates the pre-accelerated ions. Our particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation shows that the SRPA scheme works efficiently with the laser intensity ranging from 6.85×1021 W cm−2 to 4.38×1023 W cm−2, e.g., a well-collimated quasi-monoenergetic proton beam with peak energy ∼1.2 GeV can be generated by a 2.74 × 1022 W cm−2 pulse, and the energy conversion efficiency from the laser pulse to the proton beam is about 16%. The QED effects have slight influence on this SRPA scheme.
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4
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Wang T, Khudik V, Shvets G. Laser-Ion Lens and Accelerator. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2021; 126:024801. [PMID: 33512173 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.126.024801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2020] [Revised: 10/31/2020] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Generation of highly collimated monoenergetic relativistic ion beams is one of the most challenging and promising areas in ultraintense laser-matter interactions because of the numerous scientific and technological applications that require such beams. We address this challenge by introducing the concept of laser-ion lensing and acceleration. Using a simple analogy with a gradient-index lens, we demonstrate that simultaneous focusing and acceleration of ions is accomplished by illuminating a shaped solid-density target by an intense laser pulse at ∼10^{22} W/cm^{2} intensity, and using the radiation pressure of the laser to deform or focus the target into a cubic micron spot. We show that the laser-ion lensing and acceleration process can be approximated using a simple deformable mirror model and then validate it using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of a two-species plasma target composed of electrons and ions. Extensive scans of the laser and target parameters identify the stable propagation regime where the Rayleigh-Taylor-like instability is suppressed. Stable focusing is found at different laser powers (from a few to multiple petawatts). Focused ion beams with the focused density of order 10^{23} cm^{-3}, energies in access of 750 MeV, and energy density up to 2×10^{13} J/cm^{3} at the focal point are predicted for future multipetawatt laser systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianhong Wang
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA
| | - Vladimir Khudik
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA
- Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - Gennady Shvets
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA
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5
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Gong Z, Shou Y, Tang Y, Hu R, Yu J, Ma W, Lin C, Yan X. Proton sheet crossing in thin relativistic plasma irradiated by a femtosecond petawatt laser pulse. Phys Rev E 2020; 102:013207. [PMID: 32795002 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.102.013207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Leveraging on analyses of Hamiltonian dynamics to examine the ion motion, we explicitly demonstrate that the proton sheet crossing and plateau-type energy spectrum are two intrinsic features of the effectively accelerated proton beams driven by a drift quasistatic longitudinal electric field. Via two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show the emergence of proton sheet crossing in a relativistically transparent plasma foil irradiated by a linearly polarized short pulse with the power of one petawatt. Instead of successively blowing the whole foil forward, the incident laser pulse readily penetrates through the plasma bulk, where the proton sheet crossing takes place and the merged self-generated longitudinal electric field traps and reflects the protons to yield a group of protons with plateau-type energy spectrum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Gong
- State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, KLHEDP, and CAPT, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Yinren Shou
- State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, KLHEDP, and CAPT, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Yuhui Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, KLHEDP, and CAPT, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Ronghao Hu
- College of Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Jinqing Yu
- School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Wenjun Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, KLHEDP, and CAPT, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Chen Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, KLHEDP, and CAPT, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Xueqing Yan
- State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, KLHEDP, and CAPT, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China
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6
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Wang WM, Sheng ZM, Wilson T, Li YT, Zhang J. Guided propagation of extremely intense lasers in plasma via ion motion. Phys Rev E 2020; 101:011201. [PMID: 32069629 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.101.011201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
The upcoming 10-100 PW laser facilities may deliver laser pulses with unprecedented intensity of 10^{22}-10^{25}Wcm^{-2}. Such laser pulses interacting with ultrarelativistic electrons accelerated in plasma can trigger various nonlinear quantum electrodynamic processes. Usually, ion motion is expected to be ignorable since the laser intensities below 10^{25}Wcm^{-2} are underrelativistic for ions. Here, we find that ion motion becomes significant even with the intensity around 10^{22}Wcm^{-2} when electron cavitation is formed by the strong laser ponderomotive force. Due to the electron cavitation, guided laser propagation becomes impossible via usual plasma electron response to laser fields. However, we find that ion response to the laser fields may effectively guide laser propagation at such high intensity levels. The corresponding conditions of the required ion density distribution and laser power are presented and verified by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Min Wang
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronic Functional Materials and Micro-Nano Devices, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China.,SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom.,Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Zheng-Ming Sheng
- SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom.,Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MoE) and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.,Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Thomas Wilson
- SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - Yu-Tong Li
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190, China.,School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.,Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190, China.,Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MoE) and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
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7
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Zhang H, Shen BF, Wang WP, Zhai SH, Li SS, Lu XM, Li JF, Xu RJ, Wang XL, Liang XY, Leng YX, Li RX, Xu ZZ. Collisionless Shock Acceleration of High-Flux Quasimonoenergetic Proton Beams Driven by Circularly Polarized Laser Pulses. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2017; 119:164801. [PMID: 29099228 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.119.164801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
We present experimental studies on ion acceleration using an 800-nm circularly polarized laser pulse with a peak intensity of 6.9×10^{19} W/cm^{2} interacting with an overdense plasma that is produced by a laser prepulse ionizing an initially ultrathin plastic foil. The proton spectra exhibit spectral peaks at energies up to 9 MeV with energy spreads of 30% and fluxes as high as 3×10^{12} protons/MeV/sr. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that collisionless shocks are efficiently launched by circularly polarized lasers in exploded plasmas, resulting in the acceleration of quasimonoenergetic proton beams. Furthermore, this scheme predicts the generation of quasimonoenergetic proton beams with peak energies of approximately 150 MeV using current laser technology, representing a significant step toward applications such as proton therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - B F Shen
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
- Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - W P Wang
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - S H Zhai
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - S S Li
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - X M Lu
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - J F Li
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - R J Xu
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - X L Wang
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - X Y Liang
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - Y X Leng
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
| | - R X Li
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Z Z Xu
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
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8
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Dense blocks of energetic ions driven by multi-petawatt lasers. Sci Rep 2016; 6:22150. [PMID: 26924793 PMCID: PMC4770588 DOI: 10.1038/srep22150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2015] [Accepted: 02/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to simultaneously enhance the yield and quality of laser-driven ion beams for practical applications. Here we propose a scheme to address this challenge via the use of emerging multi-petawatt lasers and a density-modulated target. The density-modulated target permits its ions to be uniformly accelerated as a dense block by laser radiation pressure. In addition, the beam quality of the accelerated ions is remarkably improved by embedding the target in a thick enough substrate, which suppresses hot electron refluxing and thus alleviates plasma heating. Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that almost all ions in a solid-density plasma of a few microns can be uniformly accelerated to about 25% of the speed of light by a laser pulse at an intensity around 1022 W/cm2. The resulting dense block of energetic ions may drive fusion ignition and more generally create matter with unprecedented high energy density.
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9
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Kim YK, Cho MH, Song HS, Kang T, Park HJ, Jung MY, Hur MS. Shock ion acceleration by an ultrashort circularly polarized laser pulse via relativistic transparency in an exploded target. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2015; 92:043102. [PMID: 26565351 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.92.043102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
We investigated ion acceleration by an electrostatic shock in an exploded target irradiated by an ultrashort, circularly polarized laser pulse by means of one- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We discovered that the laser field penetrating via relativistic transparency (RT) rapidly heated the upstream electron plasma to enable the formation of a high-speed electrostatic shock. Owing to the RT-based rapid heating and the fast compression of the initial density spike by a circularly polarized pulse, a new regime of the shock ion acceleration driven by an ultrashort (20-40 fs), moderately intense (1-1.4 PW) laser pulse is envisaged. This regime enables more efficient shock ion acceleration under a limited total pulse energy than a linearly polarized pulse with crystal laser systems of λ∼1μm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Young-Kuk Kim
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNIST, 50 UNIST-gil, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798, Korea
| | - Myung-Hoon Cho
- Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 500-712, Korea
| | - Hyung Seon Song
- School of Natural Science, UNIST, 50 UNIST-gil, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798, Korea
| | - Teyoun Kang
- School of Natural Science, UNIST, 50 UNIST-gil, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798, Korea
| | - Hyung Ju Park
- Biomed Team, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, 218 Gajeongno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-700, Korea
| | - Moon Youn Jung
- Biomed Team, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, 218 Gajeongno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-700, Korea
| | - Min Sup Hur
- School of Natural Science, UNIST, 50 UNIST-gil, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798, Korea
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10
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Korzhimanov AV, Efimenko ES, Golubev SV, Kim AV. Generating high-energy highly charged ion beams from petawatt-class laser interactions with compound targets. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2012; 109:245008. [PMID: 23368338 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.109.245008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2012] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
A new method of generation of high-energy highly charged ion beams is proposed. The method is based on the interaction of petawatt circularly polarized laser pulses with high-Z compound targets consisting of two species of different charge-to-mass ratio. It is shown that highly charged ions produced by field ionization can be accelerated up to tens of MeV/u with ion (actually with Z ≤ 25) beam parameters like density and total charge inaccessible in conventional accelerators. A possibility of further ionization of the accelerated ion bunches in foil is also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- A V Korzhimanov
- Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
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11
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Yu TP, Pukhov A, Shvets G, Chen M. Stable laser-driven proton beam acceleration from a two-ion-species ultrathin foil. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2010; 105:065002. [PMID: 20867984 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.105.065002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2009] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
By using multidimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we present a new regime of stable proton beam acceleration which takes place when a two-ion-species shaped foil is illuminated by a circularly polarized laser pulse. In the simulations, the lighter protons are nearly instantaneously separated from the heavier carbon ions due to the charge-to-mass ratio difference. The heavy ion layer expands in space and acts to buffer the proton layer from the Rayleigh-Taylor-like (RT) instability that would have otherwise degraded the proton beam acceleration. A simple three-interface model is formulated to explain qualitatively the stable acceleration of the light ions. In the absence of the RT instability, the high quality monoenergetic proton bunch persists even after the laser-foil interaction ends.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong-Pu Yu
- Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
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12
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Ji LL, Shen BF, Li DX, Wang D, Leng YX, Zhang XM, Wen M, Wang WP, Xu JC, Yu YH. Relativistic single-cycled short-wavelength laser pulse compressed from a chirped pulse induced by laser-foil interaction. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2010; 105:025001. [PMID: 20867711 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.105.025001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2010] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
By particle-in-cell simulation and analysis, we propose a plasma approach to generate a relativistic chirped pulse based on a laser-foil interaction. When two counterpropagating circularly polarized pulses interact with an overdense foil, the driving pulse (with a larger laser field amplitude) will accelerate the whole foil to form a double-layer structure, and the scattered pulse (with a smaller laser field amplitude) is reflected by this flying layer. Because of the Doppler effect and the varying velocity of the layer, the reflected pulse is up-shifted for frequency and chirped; thus, it could be compressed to a nearly single-cycled relativistic laser pulse with a short wavelength. Simulations show that a nearly single-cycled subfemtosecond relativistic pulse can be generated with a wavelength of 0.2 μm after dispersion compensation.
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Affiliation(s)
- L L Ji
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 800-211, Shanghai 201800, China
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13
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Ji LL, Shen BF, Zhang XM, Wang FC, Jin ZY, Xia CQ, Wen M, Wang WP, Xu JC, Yu MY. Generating quasi-single-cycle relativistic laser pulses by laser-foil interaction. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2009; 103:215005. [PMID: 20366047 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.103.215005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2009] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
A scheme for producing nearly single-cycle relativistic laser pulses is proposed. When a laser pulse interacts with an overdense thin foil, because of self-consistent nonlinear modulation, the latter will be more transparent to the more intense part of the laser, so that a transmitted pulse can be much shorter than the incident pulse. Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation and analytical modeling, it is found that a transmitted pulse of duration 4 fs and peak intensity 3 x 10{20} W/cm{2} can be generated from a circularly polarized laser pulse. The intensity of the resulting pulse is only limited by that of the incident pulse, since this scheme involves only laser-plasma interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- L L Ji
- State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Post Office Box 800-211, Shanghai 201800, China
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