Radiation-Pressure Acceleration of Ion Beams Driven by Circularly Polarized Laser Pulses

Journal Article · Fri Dec 11 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.245003· OSTI ID:21370899

Henig, A; Hoerlein, R; Kiefer, D; Jung, D; Habs, D ^[1]; Steinke, S; Schnuerer, M; Sokollik, T; Nickles, P V; Sandner, W ^[2]; Schreiber, J ^[1]; Hegelich, B M ^[3]; Yan, X Q ^[1]; Meyer-ter-Vehn, J ^[1]; Tajima, T ^[3]

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Quantenoptik, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
2. Max-Born-Institut, D-12489 Berlin (Germany)
3. Department fuer Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, D-85748 Garching (Germany)

We present experimental studies on ion acceleration from ultrathin diamondlike carbon foils irradiated by ultrahigh contrast laser pulses of energy 0.7 J focused to peak intensities of 5x10{sup 19} W/cm{sup 2}. A reduction in electron heating is observed when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular, leading to a pronounced peak in the fully ionized carbon spectrum at the optimum foil thickness of 5.3 nm. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that those C{sup 6+} ions are for the first time dominantly accelerated in a phase-stable way by the laser radiation pressure.

• OSTI ID: 21370899
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 103; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
BEAMS
CARBON
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
FOILS
ION BEAMS
LASER RADIATION
LASERS
LEPTONS
NONMETALS
POLARIZATION
PULSES
RADIATION PRESSURE
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS