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Title: Enhanced laser-radiation-pressure-driven proton acceleration by moving focusing electric-fields in a foil-in-cone target

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4908552· OSTI ID:22408139
; ; ; ; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073 (China)
  2. Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)

A foil-in-cone target is proposed to enhance stable laser-radiation-pressure-driven proton acceleration by avoiding the beam degradation in whole stage of acceleration. Two and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that the guiding cone can substantially improve the spectral and spatial properties of the ion beam and lead to better preservation of the beam quality. This can be attributed to the focusing effect of the radial sheath electric fields formed on the inner walls of the cone, which co-move with the accelerated foil and effectively suppress the undesirable transverse explosion of the foil. It is shown that, by using a transversely Gaussian laser pulse with intensity of ∼2.74 × 10{sup 22 }W∕cm{sup 2}, a quasi-monoenergetic proton beam with a peak energy of ∼1.5 GeV/u, density ∼10n{sub c}, and transverse size ∼1λ{sub 0} can be obtained.

OSTI ID:
22408139
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 2; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English