Proton acceleration in an overdense hydrogen plasma by intense CO2 laser pulses with nonlinear propagation effects in the underdense pre-plasma

Chen, Yu-Hsin; Ting, Antonio C.; Hafizi, Bahman; Helle, Michael H.; Johnson, Luke A.; Polyanskiy, Mikhail N.; Pogorelsky, Igor V.; Babzien, Marcus; Dover, Nicholas Peter; Ettlinger, Oliver C.; Hicks, George Steuart; Ditter, Emma-Jane; Najmudin, Zulfikar; Gordon, Daniel F.

doi:10.1063/5.0142239

Title: Proton acceleration in an overdense hydrogen plasma by intense CO₂ laser pulses with nonlinear propagation effects in the underdense pre-plasma

Journal Article · 09 May 2023 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0142239 · OSTI ID:1985780

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^[1]; Helle, Michael H. ^[1];

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^[5]; Ettlinger, Oliver C. ^[5];

^[5]; Ditter, Emma-Jane ^[5];

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Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, DC (United States)
University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA (United States)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)

We report on proton acceleration from intense CO₂ laser-irradiated hydrogen plasmas at near-critical densities, with the density gradient steepened by Nd:YAG laser ablation-driven hydrodynamic shocks. While the experimental results, such as the quasi-monoenergetic proton spectra and their scaling with respect to the laser energy, are generally in agreement with the simulations, certain laser shots produced significantly higher proton energies than anticipated during the experiment. The increased proton energy may be linked to nonlinear propagation effects in the steepened plasma density ramp before the critical surface, including relativistic self-focusing and, for the case of temporally-structured laser pulses observed in the experiment, focusing of the trailing pulse through the plasma channel formed by the leading pulse 25 ps ahead. The occurrence of channel focusing in the underdense hydrogen plasma is supported by a subsequent pump-probe experiment with a dark-field imaging technique, where the formation of ion channels was observed after the passage of an intense CO₂ laser pulse

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1985780

Report Number(s):: BNL-224514-2023-JAAM; TRN: US2402688

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 30, Issue 5; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Proton acceleration in an overdense hydrogen plasma by intense CO2 laser pulses with nonlinear propagation effects in the underdense pre-plasma

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Title: Proton acceleration in an overdense hydrogen plasma by intense CO₂ laser pulses with nonlinear propagation effects in the underdense pre-plasma