We study theoretically and numerically the acceleration of protons by a combination of laser radiation pressure acceleration and Coulomb repulsion of carbon ions in a multi-ion thin foil made of carbon and hydrogen. The carbon layer helps to delay the proton layer from disruption due to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, to maintain the quasi-monoenergetic proton layer and to accelerate it by the electron-shielded Coulomb repulsion for much longer duration than the acceleration time using single-ion hydrogen foils. Particle-in-cell simulations with a normalized peak laser amplitude of a 0 = 5 show a resulting quasimonoenergetic proton energy of about 70 MeV with the foil made of 90% carbon and 10% hydrogen, in contrast to 10 MeV using a single-ion hydrogen foil.An analytical model is presented to explain quantitatively the proton energy evolution; this model is in agreement with the simulation results. The energy dependence of the quasi-monoenergetic proton beam on the concentration of carbon and hydrogen is also studied. Contents
We present a theoretical and numerical study of a novel acceleration scheme by applying a combination of laser radiation pressure and shielded Coulomb repulsion in laser acceleration of protons in multi-species gaseous targets. By using a circularly polarized CO 2 laser pulse with a wavelength of 10 μm-much greater than that of a Ti: Sapphire laser-the critical density is significantly reduced, and a high-pressure gaseous target can be used to achieve an overdense plasma. This gives us a larger degree of freedom in selecting the target compounds or mixtures, as well as their density and thickness profiles. By impinging such a laser beam on a carbon-hydrogen target, the gaseous target is first compressed and accelerated by radiation pressure until the electron layer disrupts, after which the protons are further accelerated by the electron-shielded carbon ion layer. An 80 MeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beam can be generated using a half-sine shaped laser beam with a peak power of 70 TW and a pulse duration of 150 wave periods.
We present a numerical study of the effect of the laser spot size of a circularly polarized laser beam on the energy of quasi-monoenergetic protons in laser proton acceleration using a thin carbon-hydrogen foil. The used proton acceleration scheme is a combination of laser radiation pressure and shielded Coulomb repulsion due to the carbon ions. We observe that the spot size plays a crucial role in determining the net charge of the electron-shielded carbon ion foil and consequently the efficiency of proton acceleration. Using a laser pulse with fixed input energy and pulse length impinging on a carbon-hydrogen foil, a laser beam with smaller spot sizes can generate higher energy but fewer quasi-monoenergetic protons. We studied the scaling of the proton energy with respect to the laser spot size and obtained an optimal spot size for maximum proton energy flux. Using the optimal spot size, we can generate an 80 MeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beam containing more than 108 protons using a laser beam with power 250 TW and energy 10 J and a target of thickness 0.15 wavelength and 49 critical density made of 90% carbon and 10% hydrogen
We present a scheme to significantly increase the energy of quasi-monoenergetic protons accelerated by a laser beam without increasing the input power. This improvement is accomplished by first irradiating the foil several wave periods with circular polarization and then switching the laser to linear polarization. The polarization switch increases the electron temperature and thereby moves more electrons ahead of the proton layer, resulting in a space charge electric field pushing the protons forwards. The scaling of the proton energy evolution with respect to the switching time is studied, and an optimal switching time is obtained. The proton energy for the case with optimal switching time can reach about 80 MeV with an input laser power of 70 TW, an improvement of more than 30% compared to the case without polarization switch
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