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Title: Theoretical Understanding of Enhanced Proton Energies from Laser-Cone Interactions

Abstract

For the past ten years, the highest proton energies accelerated with high-intensity lasers was 58 MeV, observed in 2000 at the LLNL NOVA Petawatt laser, using flat foil targets. Recently, 67.5 MeV protons were observed in experiments at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Trident laser, using one-fifth of the PW laser pulse energy, incident into novel conical targets. We present a focused study of new theoretical understanding of this measured enhancement from collisional Particle-in-Cell simulations, which shows that the hot electron temperature, number and maximum energy, responsible for the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) at the cone-top, are significantly increased when the laser grazes the cone wall. This is mainly due to the extraction of electrons from the cone wall by the laser electric field, and their boost in the forward direction by the vxB term of the Lorentz force. This result is in contrast to previous predictions of optical collection and wall-guiding of electrons in angled cones. This new wall-grazing mechanism offers the prospect to linearly increase the hot electron temperature, and thereby the TNSA proton energy, by extending the length over which the laser interacts in a grazing fashion in suitably optimized targets. This may allow achievingmore » much higher proton energies for interesting future applications, with smaller, lower energy laser systems that allow for a high repetition rate.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2];  [3]; ;  [4]; ;  [5]
  1. Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V., D-01328 Dresden (Germany)
  2. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. University of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
  4. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  5. University of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
21428863
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
AIP Conference Proceedings
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 1299; Journal Issue: 1; Conference: 14. advanced accelerator concepts workshop, Annapolis, MD (United States), 13-19 Jun 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3520418; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; 43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS; ACCELERATION; BEAM PRODUCTION; BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; ELECTRIC FIELDS; ELECTRON SPECTRA; ELECTRON TEMPERATURE; ELECTRONS; IONIZATION; LASER TARGETS; LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA; LASERS; LORENTZ FORCE; MEV RANGE; NOVA FACILITY; PETAWATT POWER RANGE; PROTONS; TRIDENT FACILITY; BARYONS; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; ENERGY RANGE; FERMIONS; HADRONS; LEPTONS; NUCLEONS; PLASMA; POWER RANGE; SIMULATION; SPECTRA; TARGETS

Citation Formats

Kluge, T, Gaillard, S A, Bussmann, M, Burris-Mog, T, Kraft, S D, Metzkes, J, Rassuchine, J, Schramm, U, Zeil, K, Cowan, T E, Flippo, K A, Offermann, D T, Gall, B, Geissel, M, Schollmeier, M, Lockard, T, and Sentoku, Y. Theoretical Understanding of Enhanced Proton Energies from Laser-Cone Interactions. United States: N. p., 2010. Web. doi:10.1063/1.3520418.
Kluge, T, Gaillard, S A, Bussmann, M, Burris-Mog, T, Kraft, S D, Metzkes, J, Rassuchine, J, Schramm, U, Zeil, K, Cowan, T E, Flippo, K A, Offermann, D T, Gall, B, Geissel, M, Schollmeier, M, Lockard, T, & Sentoku, Y. Theoretical Understanding of Enhanced Proton Energies from Laser-Cone Interactions. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3520418
Kluge, T, Gaillard, S A, Bussmann, M, Burris-Mog, T, Kraft, S D, Metzkes, J, Rassuchine, J, Schramm, U, Zeil, K, Cowan, T E, Flippo, K A, Offermann, D T, Gall, B, Geissel, M, Schollmeier, M, Lockard, T, and Sentoku, Y. 2010. "Theoretical Understanding of Enhanced Proton Energies from Laser-Cone Interactions". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3520418.
@article{osti_21428863,
title = {Theoretical Understanding of Enhanced Proton Energies from Laser-Cone Interactions},
author = {Kluge, T and Gaillard, S A and Bussmann, M and Burris-Mog, T and Kraft, S D and Metzkes, J and Rassuchine, J and Schramm, U and Zeil, K and Cowan, T E and Flippo, K A and Offermann, D T and Gall, B and Geissel, M and Schollmeier, M and Lockard, T and Sentoku, Y},
abstractNote = {For the past ten years, the highest proton energies accelerated with high-intensity lasers was 58 MeV, observed in 2000 at the LLNL NOVA Petawatt laser, using flat foil targets. Recently, 67.5 MeV protons were observed in experiments at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Trident laser, using one-fifth of the PW laser pulse energy, incident into novel conical targets. We present a focused study of new theoretical understanding of this measured enhancement from collisional Particle-in-Cell simulations, which shows that the hot electron temperature, number and maximum energy, responsible for the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) at the cone-top, are significantly increased when the laser grazes the cone wall. This is mainly due to the extraction of electrons from the cone wall by the laser electric field, and their boost in the forward direction by the vxB term of the Lorentz force. This result is in contrast to previous predictions of optical collection and wall-guiding of electrons in angled cones. This new wall-grazing mechanism offers the prospect to linearly increase the hot electron temperature, and thereby the TNSA proton energy, by extending the length over which the laser interacts in a grazing fashion in suitably optimized targets. This may allow achieving much higher proton energies for interesting future applications, with smaller, lower energy laser systems that allow for a high repetition rate.},
doi = {10.1063/1.3520418},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/21428863}, journal = {AIP Conference Proceedings},
issn = {0094-243X},
number = 1,
volume = 1299,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010},
month = {Thu Nov 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010}
}