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Title: Self-generated surface magnetic fields inhibit laser-driven sheath acceleration of high-energy protons

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [5];  [7]; ORCiD logo [5];  [7];  [7]; ORCiD logo [7];  [7];  [3];  [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. UPMC Univ Paris 06: Sorbonne Universités, Palaiseau cedex (France). LULI—CNRS, École Polytechnique, CEA: Université Paris-Saclay; European XFEL, GmbH, Schenefeld (Germany); Osaka University, Suita, Osaka (Japan). Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives
  2. Osaka University, Suita, Osaka (Japan). Institute of Laser Engineering; Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Department of Physics
  3. Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
  4. UPMC Univ Paris 06: Sorbonne Universités, Palaiseau cedex (France). LULI—CNRS, École Polytechnique, CEA: Université Paris-Saclay; Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
  5. UPMC Univ Paris 06: Sorbonne Universités, Palaiseau cedex (France). LULI—CNRS, École Polytechnique, CEA: Université Paris-Saclay
  6. Osaka University, Suita, Osaka (Japan). Institute of Laser Engineering and Graduate School of Engineering
  7. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  8. CEA, DAM, DIF, Arpajon (France)
  9. Osaka University, Suita, Osaka (Japan). Institute of Laser Engineering, Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives and Graduate School of Engineering

High-intensity lasers interacting with solid foils produce copious numbers of relativistic electrons, which in turn create strong sheath electric fields around the target. The proton beams accelerated in such fields have remarkable properties, enabling ultrafast radiography of plasma phenomena or isochoric heating of dense materials. In view of longer-term multidisciplinary purposes (e.g., spallation neutron sources or cancer therapy), the current challenge is to achieve proton energies well in excess of 100 MeV, which is commonly thought to be possible by raising the on-target laser intensity. Here we present experimental and numerical results demonstrating that magnetostatic fields self-generated on the target surface may pose a fundamental limit to sheath-driven ion acceleration for high enough laser intensities. Those fields can be strong enough (~105 T at laser intensities ~1021 W cm–2) to magnetize the sheath electrons and deflect protons off the accelerating region, hence degrading the maximum energy the latter can acquire.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000; SC0008827; NA0003525
OSTI ID:
1441466
Report Number(s):
SAND--2018-4540J; 662597
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (13)

The generation of mega-gauss fields on the Cornell beam research accelerator journal September 2018
Proton acceleration from laser interaction with a complex double-layer plasma target journal December 2018
Extreme brightness laser-based neutron pulses as a pathway for investigating nucleosynthesis in the laboratory journal September 2019
Alignment of solid targets under extreme tight focus conditions generated by an ellipsoidal plasma mirror journal March 2019
Electrostatic capacitance-type acceleration of ions with an intense few-cycle laser pulse journal April 2019
Laser-ion acceleration using mixed compositions: Tailoring the target for each species journal December 2019
Spin-photovoltaic effects induced by the edge magnetism in a graphene nanoribbon junction journal April 2019
Revisit on ion acceleration mechanisms in solid targets driven by intense laser pulses journal November 2018
All-optical cascaded ion acceleration in segmented tubes driven by multiple independent laser pulses journal September 2019
Proton beam emittance growth in multipicosecond laser-solid interactions journal October 2019
Identification of Coupling Mechanisms between Ultraintense Laser Light and Dense Plasmas journal March 2019
Nobel Lecture: Extreme light physics and application journal July 2019
Identification of coupling mechanisms between ultraintense laser light and dense plasmas text January 2018

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