Ion acceleration in laser-excited plasma wake fields
- Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080 (China)
The dynamics of the plasma ions in the wake fields of short, ultraintense laser pulses in underdense plasmas are investigated analytically and numerically. Owing to the large ion-to-electron mass ratio, the motion of plasma ions in such wake fields has often been assumed to be neglectable. It is shown that when the laser intensity exceeds 10{sup 20} W/cm{sup 2}, the ion motion can no longer be ignored. In this case, ion momentum peaks appear behind the laser pulse, which correspond with the ion density peaks. The laser-excited wake field appears to be effective for ion acceleration, in particular to ions with high-charge numbers. The dependence of ion acceleration on the laser intensity, pulse width, and background plasma density is discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 20768789
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the Optical Society of America. Part B, Optical Physics, Vol. 23, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1364/JOSAB.23.001190; (c) 2006 Optical Society of America; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0740-3224
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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