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Title: Enhanced ion acceleration in transition from opaque to transparent plasmas

Abstract

Using particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate ion acceleration in the interaction of high intensity lasers with plasmas which transition from opaque to transparent during the interaction process. We show that the highest ion energies are achieved when the laser traverses the target around the peak intensity and re-heats the electron population responsible for the plasma expansion, enhancing the corresponding sheath electric field. This process can lead to an increase of up to 2x in ion energy when compared with the standard Target Normal Sheath Acceleration in opaque targets under the same laser conditions. A theoretical model is developed to predict the optimal target areal density as a function of laser intensity and pulse duration. A systematic parametric scan for a wide range of target densities and thicknesses is performed in 1D, 2D and 3D and shown consistent with the theory and with recent experimental results. Thus, these results open the way for a better optimization of the ion energy in future laser–solid experiments.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
OSTI Identifier:
1438561
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; FWP 100182; FWP 100237
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
New Journal of Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 20; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 1367-2630
Publisher:
IOP Publishing
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Mishra, R., Fiuza, F., and Glenzer, S. Enhanced ion acceleration in transition from opaque to transparent plasmas. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aab8db.
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Mishra, R., Fiuza, F., & Glenzer, S. Enhanced ion acceleration in transition from opaque to transparent plasmas. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aab8db
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Mishra, R., Fiuza, F., and Glenzer, S. Fri . "Enhanced ion acceleration in transition from opaque to transparent plasmas". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aab8db. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1438561.
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@article{osti_1438561,
title = {Enhanced ion acceleration in transition from opaque to transparent plasmas},
author = {Mishra, R. and Fiuza, F. and Glenzer, S.},
abstractNote = {Using particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate ion acceleration in the interaction of high intensity lasers with plasmas which transition from opaque to transparent during the interaction process. We show that the highest ion energies are achieved when the laser traverses the target around the peak intensity and re-heats the electron population responsible for the plasma expansion, enhancing the corresponding sheath electric field. This process can lead to an increase of up to 2x in ion energy when compared with the standard Target Normal Sheath Acceleration in opaque targets under the same laser conditions. A theoretical model is developed to predict the optimal target areal density as a function of laser intensity and pulse duration. A systematic parametric scan for a wide range of target densities and thicknesses is performed in 1D, 2D and 3D and shown consistent with the theory and with recent experimental results. Thus, these results open the way for a better optimization of the ion energy in future laser–solid experiments.},
doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/aab8db},
journal = {New Journal of Physics},
number = 4,
volume = 20,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Fri Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aab8db
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Cited by: 13 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Temporal evolution of the laser–plasma interaction for proton acceleration in the laser transparent regime. Rows 1 to 4 show the laser electricfield (Ey), longitudinal plasma electric field (Ex), electron, and ion phase space, respectively. The two top rows also show the ion (ni) and electron (ne) densities. Columnsmore » 1 to 3 correspond to interaction times of t=100 fs, 248 fs, and 330 fs. Black arrows correspond to the front of the accelerated ions. Black dotted vertical lines on the phase-space plots show the target initial boundaries (X=5–7.5 μm).« less
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