Density effect on proton acceleration from carbon-containing high-density thin foils irradiated by high-intensity laser pulses

Journal Article · Tue May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2730565· OSTI ID:20982876

Zhou, C T; Yu, M Y; He, X T ^[1]

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1. Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, P. O. Box 8009, Beijing 100088 (China)

The acceleration of protons in dense plastic foils irradiated by ultrahigh intensity laser pulses is simulated using a two-dimensional hybrid particle-in-cell scheme. For the chosen parameters of the overdense foils of densities {rho}=0.2, 1, and 3 g/cm{sup 3} and of an ultrahigh intensity (2x10{sup 20} W/cm{sup 2}) laser pulse, our simulations illustrate that a high-density target is favorable to high collimation of the target-normal-sheath acceleration protons but less energy for a short acceleration time (<100 fs). In particular, the difference of strong local heating of the carbon ion for different plasma densities is clearly observed at both the front and rear surfaces of thin solid targets, suggesting that the effect of the density and composition of the targets are also important for correctly simulating energetic ion generation in ultraintense laser-solid interactions.

• OSTI ID: 20982876
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 101; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
CARBON
CARBON IONS
FOILS
IRRADIATION
LASERS
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA SHEATH
PLASMA SIMULATION
PROTONS
PULSES
TAIL IONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS