High-energy monoenergetic protons from multistaged acceleration of thin double-layer target by circularly polarized laser

Journal Article · Tue Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3556124· OSTI ID:21535188

Zhang, Z M; Sheng, Z M; Yu, M Y ^[1]; He, X T ^[1]

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1. Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)

Multistaged acceleration of solid-density thin foils by ultraintense circularly polarized laser pulse is investigated. A stable radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) stage is first established. Higher dimensional effects such as transverse instabilities and enhanced electron heating then gradually make the initially opaque foil transparent to the laser light. Accordingly, the dominant acceleration mechanism changes smoothly from RPA to target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA). The transition can therefore enhance the maximum energy of the accelerated ions but broaden their energy spectrum. For a double-layer target, however, the light ions (protons) in the backlayer can be efficiently accelerated in the RPA and TNSA regimes nearly monoenergetically. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that with this scheme a circularly polarized laser pulse of peak intensity 3.9x10{sup 22} W/cm{sup 2} can produce a collimated proton bunch that persists for many Rayleigh lengths and its peak energy can reach 4.2 GeV with FWHM of 200 MeV.

• OSTI ID: 21535188
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3556124; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ENERGY SPECTRA
LASER-RADIATION HEATING
LASERS
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA SHEATH
PLASMA SIMULATION
PROTONS
RADIATION PRESSURE
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
BARYONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HEATING
NUCLEONS
PLASMA HEATING
SIMULATION
SPECTRA