Improved laser-to-proton conversion efficiency in isolated reduced mass targets

Journal Article · Mon Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4816595· OSTI ID:22218126

Morace, A. ^[1]; Bellei, C.; Patel, P. K. ^[2]; Bartal, T.; Kim, J.; Beg, F. N. ^[1]; Willingale, L.; Maksimchuk, A.; Krushelnick, K. ^[3]; Wei, M. S. ^[1]; Batani, D. ^[4]; Piovella, N. ^[5]; Stephens, R. B. ^[6]

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1. Center for Energy Research, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
3. University of Michigan, 2200 Bonisteel Blvd. Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)
4. Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, CELIA (Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications), UMR 5107, F-33405 Talence (France)
5. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano (Italy)
6. General Atomics, 3550 General Atomics Court, San Diego, California 92121 (United States)

We present experimental results of laser-to-proton conversion efficiency as a function of lateral confinement of the refluxing electrons. Experiments were carried out using the T-Cubed laser at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan. We demonstrate that the laser-to-proton conversion efficiency increases by 50% with increased confinement of the target from surroundings with respect to a flat target of the same thickness. Three-dimensional hybrid particle-in-cell simulations using LSP code agree with the experimental data. The adopted target design is suitable for high repetition rate operation as well as for Inertial Confinement Fusion applications.

• OSTI ID: 22218126
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CONVERSION
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRONS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
LASERS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PROTON BEAMS
PROTONS