Narrow Energy Spread Protons and Ions from High-Intensity, High-Contrast Laser Solid Target Interactions

Journal Article · Thu Nov 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3520417· OSTI ID:21428862

Dollar, Franklin; Matsuoka, Takeshi; McGuffey, Christopher; Bulanov, Stepan S; Chvykov, Vladimir; Kalintchenko, Galina; Thomas, Alec G. R.; Willingale, Louise; Yanovsky, Victor; Maksimchuk, Anatoly; Krushelnick, Karl ^[1]; Davis, Jack; Petrov, George ^[2]

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1. Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, Univ. Of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
2. Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)

Recent simulations show that an idealized, high intensity, short pulse laser can generate quasi-monoenergetic proton beams with energies over 100 MeV in an interaction with a thin film. However, most short pulse laser facilities with sufficient intensity have difficulty controlling the nanosecond and picosecond contrast necessary to realize such a regime. Experiments were performed to investigate proton and ion acceleration from a high contrast, short pulse laser by employing dual plasma mirrors along with a deformable mirror at the HERCULES laser facility at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences, University of Michigan. Plasma mirrors were characterized, allowing a 50% throughput with an intensity contrast increase of 105. The focal spot quality was also exceptional, showing a 1.1 micron full width at half maximum (FWHM) focal diameter. Experiments were done using temporally cleaned 30 TW, 32 fs pulses to achieve an intensity of up to 10{sup 21} Wcm{sup -2} on Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} and Mylar targets with thicknesses ranging 50 nm to 13 microns. Proton beams with energy spreads below 2 MeV were observed from all thicknesses, peaking with energies up to 10.3 MeV and an energy spread of 0.8 MeV. Similar narrow energy spreads were observed for oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon at the silicon nitride thickness of 50 nm with energies up to 24 MeV with an energy spread of 3 MeV, whereas the energy spread is greatly increased at a larger thickness. Maximum energies were confirmed with CR39 track detectors, while a Thomson ion spectrometer was used to gauge the monoenergetic nature of the beam.

• OSTI ID: 21428862
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1299, Issue 1; Conference: 14. advanced accelerator concepts workshop, Annapolis, MD (United States), 13-19 Jun 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3520417; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
BEAM PRODUCTION
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
CARBON
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
HEAVY ION SPECTROMETERS
IONIZATION
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
LASERS
MEV RANGE
MIRRORS
MULTICHARGED IONS
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
PROTON BEAMS
PULSES
SILICON NITRIDES
THIN FILMS
BEAMS
CHARGED PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
FILMS
IONS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NONMETALS
NUCLEON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PLASMA
PNICTIDES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SIMULATION
SPECTROMETERS