Enhancement of proton energy by polarization switch in laser acceleration of multi-ion foils
- Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)
- Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China)
- Department of Physics, National Central University, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan (China)
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.
- OSTI ID:
- 22218557
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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